Successful online marketing, as coined and defined by Shama Hyder Kabani, in her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing, should follow the ACT methodology. The ACT methodology is a simple framework for marketing your business or product online. As we understand it today, social media is not a stand alone silo in marketing/promotions, rather it is a complimentary item to the bigger marketing picture.
Act Methodology defined:
A – Attract: Get attention. Get people to flock to your website as this is the primary landing site (and selling function) for any or all of your online initiatives.
C – Convert: Turning a stranger into a consumer or customer.
T – Transform: Combining both attract and convert into a magnetic force.
ATTRACT
A key ingredient to social media. Here you are attracting people to your website. If you can’t get their attention and get them to go to your site, you will not be successful. You need three things to attract people to your site:
- Brand: What is your brand?
- Outcome: What you do in one line. Sum it up.
- Differentiator: How are you really different from your competitors?
“The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation” – Shama Hyder Kabani
CONVERT
Changing a consumer into a customer. There is a difference between the two. A consumer may take interest in your product or service by following you on Twitter, Facebook, and your blog, but may not necessarily buy from you. Whereas a customer is the ultimate converted consumer, they buy from you. The conversion formula: Consumption of valuable content + Time = Client
But remember, social media takes TIME! Clients often do not come right away, but they can. The thing is to not make this your goal.
The best conversion tool is your own website! Social media profiles help drive traffic to your site, but won’t make the sale for you.
TRANSFORM
After mastering both attract and convert, you now have to master transformation. “Social media is built on social proof”. There are two parts to this:
1. You always have to do a good job
2. You have to use your previous success to attract even more success.
Prove time and time again how good you are and more customers will transform. This is a good time and place to share stories, testimonials, case studies, video interviews, audio, and pictures.
Shama does a great job at explaining these principles in her book, but most of it speaks for itself. Get people to your site, convert them to customers, and keep them coming back by proving time and time again how great your company is.
Renee: I was pulled to your site from twitter and found your creative structuring and value statements simple and easy to read. I am a victim of the telecom meltdown (Worldcom,Enron) and have decided to change careers. I need to sell myself basically and do it in a clever and enticing to the eyeball way. I like your format. Would you suggest or maybe point me in a direction to build a site?