As impersonal as our world has become (some businesses don’t even offer a customer service phone number-email or live chat only), people are still drawn to companies who take that extra step to build relationships online.

Here are some tips to help you personalize your brand:

1.  Always respond to comments…even negative ones.

If people come across your social media profiles and can tell that you have actively responded to questions, comments and reviews, it shows a lot about your customer service as a company.

Some comments may be less than positive, but do respond to them.

Think about how you react when you’re searching a new restaurant on Yelp and read negative reviews and how that affects your decision to try that restaurant.

Now what if you saw the business owner apologize and address the negative review and explain the circumstances…wouldn’t you feel more compelled to give it a try?

And DO NOT delete in an attempt to ignore negative comments as this only angers people more.

Negative experiences create more impact than positive ones so always try to rectify situations.

2.  Engage with people.

Don’t just spam your sales message as people do not connect with that.

It’s acceptable to push your products or services maybe 20% of the time, but the rest of the time you should be providing content and engaging with people.

If you’re familiar with Twitter, you know how fast a timeline can move and that the lifespan of your tweet is very short.

For this reason, it’s super important to personally connect with people.

3.  Don’t automate your responses, people can tell.

When I receive a direct message on Twitter immediately after following someone and it reads something along the lines of this: “Thanks for the follow! We’ve got lots of great advice, check us out,” I know that it was an automated response.

If you’re going to thank someone for following you, do it in a personal way.

Comment on something you like about their website/blog or a post that you found interesting.

If you can see their first name, use it.

For example, “I enjoyed your article, Pete.”

People will be able to tell that you are genuine and have taken the time to connect with them.

4.  Update consistently

We’ve all heard how beneficial and pertinent it is for businesses to be on social networking sites, but it’s not enough to just have profiles and let them sit and collect dust.

Oftentimes, I run across profiles that haven’t been updated in a year or they’re only updated once every three months.

Again, even if you have the best in person customer service, your online profiles will not reflect that well if you are not consistent.

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Think of your social media strategy as an extension of your in person strategy,: listen first, connect with people and be a resource to them.

Happy connecting!

Note from Amber: This post is a collaboration with Art Petty at his Management Excellence Blog.  Art is a great client and his passion for his role as a leadership and strategy coach is quickly evident.  Be sure to check out his latest leadership book and you will surely learn a thing or two,  Leadership Caffeine: Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

Note from Art: Whether you work inside the walls of a corporation or you make your office wherever you can grab a good connection and a great cup of coffee, chances are that you will come face-to-face with the need to appear on camera at some point in time. For many of us, the thought isn’t exactly a welcome one.

I had my first video encounter to promote the launch of my essay collection, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, and while painful, in the end after the self-induced stress wore off and the almost-expletives cleared the air and I had regained my ability to say, “action-packed” versus the now classic line captured as “action-paction,” it was fun and I believe beneficial. So much so, that I’ve agreed to start a monthly videocast.

I’m not alone in my video-phobia, and in comparing notes with many of my colleagues, it seems we all struggle with the same issues. We also agree that the benefits of building a video presence strongly outweigh any of the personal reasons for avoiding this. To support our efforts, I encouraged Amber Wallor and Edgar Mourans, the two pros behind Left Hand Marketing and the drive to help small business owners and even hapless actors like me build a video presence, to offer us some guidance.

Like everything else these two great people do, they went above and beyond the call of duty, offering a free e-book filled with tips and brief video clip to show that they are willing to face the camera as well! Use their advice wisely, and of course don’t be bashful in reaching out to them for help. Did I mention they are entrepreneurs! Enjoy the resources and good luck in your small screen careers!

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What causes you to freeze up, mispronounce words, suffer from memory loss, and blabber senselessly about ideas that are normally second nature to you while watching your every move? A video camera!

We are passionate about the effectiveness of video marketing. Video is a powerful tool for businesses and individuals looking to gain an edge against competitors.

Video allows you to showcase what differentiates you while giving people the feeling that they already know you before ever doing business with you. It goes with the old cliché, people like doing business with people they know, like and trust. More so, video brings increased exposure and higher search results. YouTube is owned by Google and is one of the largest search engines; so naturally, Google favors websites with video in its search results. In fact, videos are 53 times more likely than traditional websites to receive a first-page ranking on Google.

Nevertheless, being on camera is easier said than done. We haven’t had one client who hasn’t feared being recorded. For the majority of people, being in front of the camera is quite an unpleasant feeling to say the least. It’s like hating the sound of your own voice but ten times worse!

Here’s Some Help:

To help you with overcoming that fear, we have been inspired to create a free downloadable mini e-book (and we had fun creating the pictures on the cover) that will guide you in the right direction.

Watch your confidence grow with our list of helpful tips on preparing yourself when it’s time for the lights, camera, and action (or “action-paction” as Art has been known to say)!

It’s truly an amazing sight to watch our clients transform through the camera lens, some even begin to enjoy being on camera! If you find other things that work for you, we’d love to hear from you and add them to future revisions of our e-book.

P.S. We’d like to thank Art for being so great to work with and for being a good sport about action-paction!

In writing a post on the importance of video, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to release a video of our own about the e-book. Hey, we can all use the practice!

If you know you do something better than your competitors, let your customer base know without them having to physically visit your competitors.  You don’t need to bash your competition, but just let people know what value your company brings to the table. We recently met with a client who told us about their amazing Italian beef and how they slow cook it to allow all of the rich flavors to come together but he said that no one knew how good their beef was!  Well there you go, that’s where a video is so powerful.  If you saw a video of the owner talking about the steps that go into the delicious Italian beef, wouldn’t your mouth instantly start watering (unless you’re a vegetarian of course)?

Additionally, your potential customers get to know you, which is huge.  Feeling like you know someone and to make a connection helps customers gravitate towards your business.  Business owners naturally (or at least they should) glow when talking about their business and why they love what they do.  And video allows potential customers to see your passion for what you do come out at the comfort of their own home.   So differentiate yourself and go out and get your videos on the web today!

Let’s face it, Facebook isn’t just for socializing with friends, family and business associates, but also a key online marketing tool for businesses.   The benefits of having a well-constructed Facebook Fan Page for your business are clearly evident:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Share content with your clients and customers
• Engage in conversation with your fans
• Promote loyalty and brand recognition
• Generate additional sales

How can you maximize all of these great benefits to their fullest potential?  Well the truth is, you need to build a loyal following from the ground up.  You can’t expect to just slap together a company fan page, post a few products or services you offer, and add a couple of comments and videos and expect all the traffic and new sales to start rolling in!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.   Now of course it’s very possible, but you have to use the correct tools, build your fan base, and most importantly continue to engage with your potential clients and customers.  So you might be asking, what is the best way to begin building my Facebook fan base?  I think it all starts with having a great Facebook Welcome tab.

Having a company Facebook page comes with the ability to create different tabs for varying aspects of your business.   The most common tabs include:  wall, info, photos, videos, events, and last but not least, the welcome tab.  When people who are not fans land on your fan page, you don’t want them landing on anything other than the welcome tab!  Remember the power of utilizing a fan page – grow your fans (referred to as “Likes”) – engage in conversation with your fans – create a loyal customer – generate more sales!  The more “Likes” you can generate, the more your company, brand, and message will be seen.  Therefore, you have to create a custom welcome tab that will attract new Likes.  The best way to go about generating Likes is by offering people an incentive to click the Like button:  offer a coupon, a free report, free consultation or whatever else you can think of that possesses some sort of value (a call to action!).   Once you’ve captured them as fans, then they can land on your wall and engage in the conversation.   Set it up correctly, and it could be an amazing marketing tool to further promote your business.

If you don’t know how to do it, then by all means hire some help!  There are hundreds of very competent social media professionals like Left Hand Marketing, that can not only get you up and running with a fantastic Facebook page, but also manage it for you so you don’t have to.  As you can see, the benefits far outweigh the costs.  If you own a business, then get out there, get found and engage to continue your growth.

This is very similar to what happened to me when I needed to try on a bridesmaid dress for a cousin that lives out of state. As soon as the salesperson realized I wasn’t buying, she immediately brushed me off even though I definitely had questions and needed her help. She made me feel totally uninvited, like I was such a huge nuisance and didn’t belong. Well you know what, even though it wasn’t the President of the company that made me feel terrible, it completely changed my entire view of the company, and obviously not in a good way. I’ll be honest, I probably would not go back there or recommend any of my friends to go there either. No Facebook likes, no retweets, and a bad review on yelp, that’s what the company is getting. And I completely understand that the company doesn’t stand for that kind of service, but their employees are a reflection of what it represents. Kind, courteous, and helpful employees generate huge positive feedback for a company in the social world we now live in. Mean, disgruntled, and uninviting employees will generate the negativity that will eventually close your business’ doors. I just can’t stress this enough, whether you’re a small business or a fortune 100 company, make sure your customer service is top notch if you want a strong reputation in this socially influential world we live in.

At previous companies I worked for, when working with marketing/design companies, I always wondered how these companies could charge so much money for a product that wasn’t going to produce the results we wanted.  For example, at one of my previous employers, they had a contract with a design company to create a simple 5 page website.  After charging $6000 (a rate they said was 50% off their normal prices), I realized there was just no way the website was going to serve its purpose.  Like all businesses want, we wanted our website to compete and stick out from our competitors, have the ability to draw visitors in from our home page and build our clientele.

After knowing how much the contract was for, I was surprised to see what was ultimately delivered to us.  I found it hard to believe that they actually researched our competitors, because had they, they would have found out that there was no way that website they created for us could hold a candle against our competitors.

While I’m not into bashing marketing companies, because there are plenty who produce amazing products, I found that there is a need for a company for small businesses to go to, where they can feel like more than just a project, whose needs are listened to, the kind of company that wholeheartedly gets to know their clients, their growth aspirations and competitors.

It is my sincere hope that Left Hand Marketing will grow to be the go-to company for small businesses who need affordable and effective marketing solutions.  I look forward to working with you!