Number eighteen of our weekly interviews in which we discover how real businesses are making Social Media work for them. Please meet Chantal Cornelius from Appletree.
Who are you and what do you do?
I run Appletree, a marketing business set up nearly 13 years ago. We offer a full service of a wide range of marketing activity, but normally starting with creating a marketing plan to help clients achieve their business goals. Under our Managed Marketing service we implement the marketing plan by doing the work for our clients. With our Marketing Mentor service, we help our client to implement their own marketing by supporting them and providing ongoing advice.
How do you use Social Media?
We predominantly use Social Media to raise the profile of Appletree and to generate brand awareness. We use a wide variety of tools in an integrated way. Each month we have a marketing meeting in the office to discuss the main topics that are going to be covered during the next month, which we use to link our updates and integrate our Social Media. We use a variety of Social Media tools:
Each member of the business has a LinkedIn profile and we also have an Appletree company profile. We update the company profile and share using our individual profiles as well as updating our individual profiles directly. Our updates will include links to our blog posts and newsletters, updates about what we are doing e.g. the new book that Chantal is writing, clients we are working with and changes in the business. We also use LinkedIn for recruitment – we’re currently looking for a new Account Manager.
I have also joined a number of LinkedIn groups for coaches as we have a number of clients who are coaches. In the groups I answer questions relating to how to promote their business. This has brought people to workshops and generated book sales.
We aim for 12 tweets a day. At least ½ the tweets will be tips and advice – others will be similar to the LinkedIn updates. We also work on getting conversations going. Many of our tweets are retweeted and when we say ‘thank you’, we ask a question to encourage engagement. We also retweet updates written by clients to help build relationships.
Although this isn’t an obvious channel for a B2B business, we have had success through friends of the people who like our Facebook page. We share similar updates to those on LinkedIn.
Blog
We blog three times a week. This is split between different people within the business. On a Monday, we write about the theory on a topic and on the Friday we write about using the topic in a practical manner. On a Wednesday it might be a more topical piece.
Newsletter
Our email newsletter, Scribbles, is sent out on the 3rd Wednesday of the month and is also distributed on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Videos
We have just started to produce videos relating to our blogs and newsletters – although we’ve been doing this for years for our clients. The videos are available on YouTube and across all the other marketing channels, including our website.
Google+
This is the next one we’re looking at! We’re investigating the best way to use Google+ for both our business and for our clients.
Can you share a Personal Success Story?
I know our Social Media is successful when I walk into a networking meeting and a complete stranger knows who I am because of my Social Media presence. Much of our work comes from face to face networking and it is easier to build a relationship with a potential client when they already know who I am based on my Social Media tips and blogs. Even better if they talk about the enjoyment they get from reading my blogs and newsletter – excellent reputation building!
Can you give our readers a top tip?
Consistency. Ad hoc marketing doesn’t work. If you are going to use Social Media, be consistent and keep doing it!
Contact Information
You can contact Chantal on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Appletree website.