The Top 9 Tools for Managing Social Media Accounts

Managing social media takes more than a few minutes a day.

The need to engage is at an all-time high. That’s because our clients are more likely to hire ADR professionals that are responsive on social media.  The value of having an efficient and effective social media presence for the purposes of social proofing is immeasurable. 

Someone needs to be representing your practice all day on social media – responding to and engaging with users.

Without using tools or a social media account manager to help cope with the daily requirements of your social media platforms, there truly aren’t enough in the day to get everything that needs to be done, actually done.  From researching new content ideas to keeping an eye on your hours competitors‘ posts, keeping up to date on current laws and consumer trends, engaging with your followers, and forming new business relationships … it’s just too much for most mediators and arbitrators to handle.

Luckily for you, here’s a list of some of the top and most practical social media management tools. All of these tools will help you work smarter, not harder.

If you’ve discovered a tool or technique that isn’t listed below, please let me know so that I can share that good information across my own social media accounts.

1. Bit.ly

It feels like such a luxury when a tool or platform gives you the option to shorten your ugly URLs, but Bit.ly does and they’ve done so for over 30 billion links so far. With the multiple social media networks, you’re going to want a unique tracking parameter on each URL, and not one that the social media users will see.

Bit.ly allows you to shorten, customize, and track URLs, making lengthy coded URLs into neat, pretty little URLs.

Pricing: Free

2. Buffer

Buffer is one of the social media marketing veteran’s favorite tools. With one easy click you’ll be able to share content and schedule posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Buffer allows you to post content throughout the day so that your social media feeds are consistently updated. Additionally, you can schedule ahead of time, which means that you’re posting on your social media accounts while also mediating or arbitrating.

Important note: If you own or work for a registered nonprofit organization, you need to look into Buffer. They offer a 50 percent discount (on what is already competitive pricing) to all registered nonprofit organizations.

Pricing: Free, $10 or $99 monthly

3. BuzzSumo

Running out of ideas for your social media content? It happens to us all.  BuzzSumo is the perfect content idea generator. Just type in a topic and see what their research suggests.

You can use filters to see whatever types of content you want, whether you’re looking to share:

* Articles

* Infographics

* Videos

* Interviews

* Podcasts.

You can export this data and even set up alerts to receive a daily inspiration of content.

Pricing: $79, $139, $239, or $499 a month for enterprise and custom plans

4. Hootsuite

Hootsuite might sound like a bit much for a solo practitioner or small firm, but this powerhouse is actually perfect.  Hootsuite allows you to connect, monitor, and schedule posts for 35 different social networks.

Very rarely will you meet someone who uses both Hootsuite and Sprout Social (number 7 on this list), and that’s because you don’t need both. They are both efficient and offer an array of social media features, but are very similar in what they offer.

Aside from their similarities, there are a few things that set them apart.

* Sprout Social is completely international when it comes to languages. Hootsuite is slightly limited.

* Hootsuite has a huge list of programs they integrate with, like Salesforce, Marketo, and SocialFlow. Sprout Social integrates with all of the social media networks, and then just five others (Uservoice, Bitly, Feedly, Zendesk, and Google Analytics).

* Both of their dashboards look completely different when you log in. Hootsuite offers more of a wide angle approach showcasing everything you need to see (scheduled posts, brand mentions, engagement, feed, etc.). Sprout Social has a cleaned-up version of this and only displays one portion at a time with top menu and side bars offering the rest.

Pricing: Free for up to 3 profiles or $19, $99, or $499 monthly.

5.  MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is quite simply just fun to use. You pick your practice relevant topics like mediation, arbitration, conflict resolution, workplace conflict, divorce mediation, etc. and schedule the types of topics you want to publish on whichever days you prefer.

And, when you run into the inevitable content lull with social media, MeetEdgar is a great solution. This lovely little piece of technology will add a bit more fun to your social media calendar. It somehow does a little self-reflection and then only publishes content that Edgar thinks is worthy of engagement.

One of the best features of MeetEdgar is that once your topics are tuned in, Edgar makes sure the content never runs out. So you don’t have to constantly refill or pick new topics. Edgar does it for you.

Here’s my favorite part.. once everything from a topic has been published, Edgar starts to re-share old content that people may have missed the first time around. Considering the limited amount of organic reach on social media, resharing content gives it another chance for engagement. Way to go, Edgar!

Pricing: Free 2-week trial or $49 a month

6. Post Planner

Post Planner is another great social media content tool. With Post Planner you can see what types of content are being shared around a specific subject or person, search by:

* Topic.

* Trend.

* Keyword.

* Hashtag.

* Facebook.

* Twitter handle.

Search through their recommended feeds based on industry and interests and explore new content ideas.

The tool will also give each piece of content a performance engagement ranking. This ranking, which is based on Post Planner’s custom algorithms, helps determine whether a post is worth sharing.

BONUS: You also get a scheduling calendar with Post Planner.

Pricing: $3, $9, $19, or $49 monthly, depending upon profiles

7. Sprout Social 

Sprout Social is one of the best social media management tools. More than 19,000 companies, like the Hyatt and VICE, trust Sprout for:

* Social media scheduling.

* Engagement reports.

* Analytics.

* Brand monitoring.

Sprout Social will drastically help you save time and accomplish your daily social media tactics.

Pricing: Free 30-day trial, and then it’s on to a monthly plan of either $99, $149, or $249

8. TweetDeck

Are you getting and greeting clients on Twitter?  Maybe you manage multiple Twitter profiles? TweetDeck is the tool for you!

It looks on its face a bit like Hootsuite, but under its skin it’s different beast entirely, and customized just for your Twitter needs.

TweetDeck:

* Organizes your Twitter account by building collections, filing lists, searches, activity, and more.

* Tracks topics, events, and hashtags to help with brand monitoring and to stay in the know of trending conversations.

* Manages multiple Twitter accounts and lets you tweet, monitor, and follow from one dashboard. TweetDeck completely removes the hassle of logging in and out.

9. TweetReach

And then there’s TweetReach.  Another great tool for ADR practitioners who love to Tweet.

TweetReach has always had everything you thought you needed to know in terms of performance and engagement for Twitter. But did you know that they’ve recently expanded with Union Metrics and now also provide analytics for Instagram and Facebook.

With TweetReach you can:

* Monitor any topics or profiles, even your competitors.

* Create Trackers for Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

* Track trends in sentiment and engagement rates.

* Export your data into CSV or PDF reports.

* Determine the reach and sentiment for any hashtag on Twitter or Instagram.

* Discover the hashtags that get your content in front of new audiences.

* Find influencers in any community.

Pricing: $99, $199, and $399 a month

No matter which social media platform(s) you’re using, creating or curating content, engaging your contacts, and monitoring the effectiveness of your posts can be overwhelming.  The tools above are a great way to free up your time and alleviate some of the stress of managing your accounts on own.  Of course if managing your own accounts, even with the tools listed above, is too much for you to do on own, give Marketing Resolution a call and we’ll create a solution for you.

CONVENING AND MARKETING

Whether you convene your cases yourself, have an assistant make the necessary contacts or belong to a professional tribunal – don’t kid yourself; convening and marketing go hand in hand. 

How your conduct yourself on the phone and in writing, how you answer the parties’ questions, the way in which you collect information, and whether or not you can get reluctant parties to come to the table – it’s all marketing and customer service.  One of the key ingredients is moving a potential case into the active mediation process.  This frequently proves to be one of the greatest challenges for providers.  It can be most difficult when the parties are unrepresented or involved in a highly emotional dispute.

Since Marketing Resolution is always in search of resources to assist providers in strengthening their skills both as mediators and arbitrators as well as powerful marketers, we’d like to direct you to https://joyceodidison.com/books/ where Mrs. Joyce Odidison offers seminars and workshops that will help you and your clients to prepare for mediation as well as a fantastic workbook (and many other books) for you and your clients.  Her site claims that the Pre-Mediation Workbook will increase your rate of successful mediation by approximately 90%.  The Pre-Mediation Workbook offers over 40 mediation preparedness tips and tools, will help you move potential cases from the convening process to the mediation process, transform high conflict into powerful bargaining and negotiating opportunities, reduce caucusing, gain tools to explore and deal with suppressed anger, and apply strategies to curb any power imbalance before mediation.

As marketing goes, it doesn’t get much better than Mrs. Odidison’s Pre-Mediation Workbook to help you move potential cases from convening into the hearing room.

***If you have a resource, tool, tip or technique that you’d like to share with our industry, drop us a line, send us a sample, or email a link and we’ll convey the information to our colleagues.

4 Steps to Optimize Your Marketing For A New Decade

Welcome to a new decade!  With the start of 2020 now is a good time to take a look at your marketing and practice development efforts from past years and analyze your performance. You might find that your practice has grown or may need a change of direction. Now is good time to review your processes and services to determine any modifications you need to make for effective results.

Put a solid program together with clear goals and objectives.

This is important! We all get caught up in what we’re working on and overwhelmed with everyday tasks. It’s imperative to get your ideas on paper in front of you so you can map out a marketing and business building scenario. Take a little time to jot down your priorities.

Define Your Goals

What do you want to achieve in 2020? Define your purpose based on the answer to this question. Compare these goals to last year’s and see if anything has changed.

Your goals might simply be to gain more clients.  But you can also include goals like reaching out to your connections on social media at least once a week, updating your office management processes, researching and utilizing new technology or apps to make working with your practice easier, connecting with previous clients, starting a blog, cleaning up your database, updating your website, refreshing your profile on social media, subscribing to marketing, practice development, and entrepreneurship podcasts, attending more seminars/webinars, or more.

Review Your Target Markets

Marketplaces can change.  Sometime slowly, sometimes quickly. Keep a close focus on your primary and secondary target markets.  Has anything changed?  Are they starting to prefer on-line resolution platforms, have they become more sophisticated in their use of social media, have their gatekeepers remained the same or changed?  Also note what has remained the same since last year.  Are your clients still primarily concerned with quality over price?  Do they still value traditional face to face connection more than social media? 

Now is the right time to re-evaluate who your clients are, what they want, and how they want it.

Analyze Your Competition

Check up on your competition and see what they’re keeping the same as well as what they’re introducing into their practice.  What makes your competitors successful? What strengths help them stand out?  And most importantly, how can you set yourself apart from your competition?

Organize and Prioritize Your Marketing Initiatives

Now that you’ve defined your goals, you’re ready for the more creative part of your yearly planning.

Set a date to achieve all of your goals and objectives so you can start your course of action. Break the year into quarters. Don’t let these tasks intimidate you; you’re not wasting your time. On the contrary!

Think about how you’re going to execute all of the above. The imperative tasks that need to be done away should obviously be at the top of the list.  But the smaller things can easily be peppered throughout your calendar so that they don’t ignored.  Remember, it’s the cumulative effect of all the big and little things together that will make the difference. 

The New Year brings change and soul-searching for improvement, especially when it comes to marketing and building your practice. Now’s the time to preview the year ahead and make the necessary adjustments for the best performance of your business initiatives.

Your practice is constantly evolving so it needs to be constantly monitored and updated. A new decade is a good excuse to re-energize your marketing efforts with a fresh new start.  If you have any questions, concerns or requests about how to best go about marketing and building your practice, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Natalie Armstrong-Motin | Executive Director

Marketing Resolution | Phoenix, Arizona & Normandy France

Coaching | Consulting | Campaigning since 1995

Natalie@HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com | www.twitter.com/MarketingADR www.HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com  | www.linkedin.com/in/marketingresolution www.facebook.com/HowToMarketMyMediationPractice |  +33 (0)6 42 92 28 24

REALITY Vs. PERCEPTION

A great deal of a businessperson's time is spent creating the right perception of her business. She wants to be sure that her target market have the opinion she wants them to have. Is her practice a high-end boutique practice, an "every-man's" kind of practice or a practice designed to accommodate those who can't afford other venues? She might want to position herself as the friendliest, the most authoritative, most experienced etc.

The perception of her practice to her prospects should be based in the reality of her practice. Just ask her previous clients if their perception of her practice proved to be the reality. If she positioned herself as an expert in construction issues and was unable to read the blueprints put before her, well ... not only are her clients going to be a little more than disheartened, she might have done actual damage to the their case, the process, her individual practice and the industry as a whole. The reality did not support the perception.

On that note, a great deal your time should be spent on building an APPROPRIATE perception of the reality in your target market's minds. How do you do that?

First realize what your strengths are. Determine your niche. Then determine what position in that specialized market place you want to take. It could be based on your fee schedule, your expertise, your personality, your geographic location, or, well, pretty much anything.

Then design your marketing and promotional pieces to reflect the "personality" you've chosen for your practice. Be sure that your marketing choices give a true reflection of the perception you want folks to have. If you are trying to position your firm as the high-end provider in the area, don't scrimp on paper quality, real estate, or staff.

If you're a non-profit - the reverse is true. Recipients of your letters want to know that you're frugal with the little money you have. They want to see your information on less expensive or recycled papers.

In essence - the reality, and the perception of that reality, need to be the identical in order to avoid any cognitive dissonance in your target market, not to mention keep them coming back for more.

If you need any help in trying to determine whether or not the reality matches the perception you are trying to create, give me a call - we'll mediate the gap.

Some Questions (And their answers)

Here's a question that might actually be your answer. Next time you're working on your practice-building strategy, ask yourself this:

If I ran a competing practice, how would I beat mine?

Which weakness would I attack? What would I do to distinguish my new practice from my current practice?

Then --- eliminate that weakness from your practice. Either augment your activities, your location, your service, your support systems, etc. or outsource them. Your weakness is your soft underbelly, and probably the reason you are losing some business.

Next --- build on your distinguishing strength before someone else starts doing it.

Always ask yourself, "How would I beat me?"

Another good question to ask.

Whenever you consider your business's next steps, ask, "if we were starting this business from scratch, what would we do differently?"

Then do that. Every now and then it's good to start from scratch.

Wonder!

At an international conference of ADR consumers a while ago I overheard one gentleman say to another "Mediation is the greatest thing since sliced bread"!

Well, here's the thing about sliced bread.

It was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder in 1912. A simple yet brilliant idea: a machine that could take a loaf of bread and (voila) slice it!

Otto's machine was a complete failure.

Around this same time was the beginning of the advertising age (which meant that no matter how a good a product or service was, without good marketing it had very little chance of success.

It was about 20 years later, when a new brand called Wonder started marketing sliced bread, that the invention caught on. It was the packaging and the advertising that worked - not the convenience or innovation of pre-slicing bread.

How does this translate to your practice?

Well, I know your service is great and you know your service is great - but if your consumers don't know it ... well, frankly, it just doesn't matter how great your service really is. You've got to reach out to your consumers and tell them how great your service is. Tell why you're different, better, faster, cheaper, bigger, smaller,.... But the point is - you've got to tell them.

If you need help figuring out ways to tell you customers how great your practice is, give me a call and I'll you strategize some practice-building and marketing activities.

Promoting through Public Speaking

One of the most obvious and most effective ways to promote your practice is through public speaking. It puts you directly in front of your target market and establishes you as a credible authority on your topic ... IF you're a good public speaker that is.

If you need to polish your public speaking, one way to improve is to join your local toastmasters club where you can hone your impromptu and prepared speaking skills

alongside others like yourself. Another option is to join a local community theater

company where small speaking parts allow you to dip your toe in the sea of public

speaking with minimal attention. You might also try your local college for a public

speaking course.

In many regions oratory still thrives, and indeed is performed in clubs and associations that allow people like yourself to learn the trick of the trade and have an opportunity to engage in the honorable, ageless practice of public speaking. Most programs and organizations that offer such training and participation have nominal costs, if any. For those of you who don't want to pay for a private coach, but need the skills necessary to hold an audiences' attention, these group venues might be just what you need.

Once you're comfortable in front of a crowd it's time to your skills. But not on primary, secondary, or tertiary target markets. Nope. Try them out on us first. Speak or present to the resolution industry. Our organizations should be your comfort zone and will give you the right platform to take your expertise public. Speak to us. Teach us something that you're passionate about. Give us your best. From us you'll learn how to prepare for presentation, how to deliver it, and very importantly - how to follow up on it.

Now that you've got some practice it's time to swing for the fences and speak and present to your target markets. What do your perspective clients want to hear? Or maybe take the riskier route and deliver a speech about what they don't want hear - but might be necessary for them to know. As you reach out to associations and organizations to which you want to speak, it's always a good idea to ask the all-important question; what do the members want to hear or learn. That might better define or even entirely change the subject matter of your presentation.

Once you've got the gig be sure to share all about it on your social media accounts (which should be populated with your target market contacts) and if appropriate invite them to attend. under the spotlight people come to you be prepared to network come with cards aplenty  offer to give attendees whatever follow up they need - a phone call, a face to face meeting, or more information.  if the association to which you speak doesn't have a survey in place to determine how well you did - get their permission to survey the attendees. 5 or fewer short questions and (this next thing is super important) a place for testimonials. If you can post to social media during or immediately after the event do it. Be sure to thank the association or organization for allowing you the opportunity to speak to their members. update your bio credible authority on the issues your target market face

The key component now is to follow up on the connections you made and move those interactions in relationships. Send your new colleagues a follow up email whatever information they requested or you offered, meet them coffee, add them to your LinkedIn network, and continue to keep in touch. Keeping yourself front of mind and you'll turn potential clients into prospective clients and then again into paying clients.

If you need help finding places to speak, a topic on which to speak, or to get the most from your speaking gig, give me a call. I'm always happy to help.

Before, During and After

Before advertising mediators had word of mouth. Our services were talked about, referrals made, and our services purchased.

The best mediators had the best reputations and busiest practices.

During advertising it's pretty simple - if you advertise and market directly to consumers your sales go up. A partnership with an appropriate PR and Marketing firm means you can grow your company nearly as large as you can imagine.

After advertising, well, we're back nearly where we started. But instead of your practice growing slowly and awkwardly by word of mouth alone, the power of your network combined with intelligent PR and marketing can drive your practice to great heights at rocket speed.

Striking a balance between self-promotion and professional promotion can be the defining combination for success. If you're not a business-minded mediator find someone to help with business development. If you're not entrepreneurial find someone who is to help create that never-ending drive for you. If you're not a bookkeeper - outsource your books to a professional. Essentially - do what you do best (mediate) and find professionals to augment your business with their special talents.

The combination is unbeatable and the balance you create will pay for itself in more ways than just your bank account.

If you need help balancing your practice-building and marketing activities give me call and I'll help you with your strategic needs.

Your Website - Yes, You Need One

Do you have a website?

Do you need a website?

Here's what you should you know.

1. Your content should be 80% - 90% about your viewer, their concerns, their fears, their issues, their position. It's all about them and what's in it for them if they hire you. Speak to their problems and provide them the solution.

2. Graphics and colors should be developed based on the lowest common denominators of your viewers' computers' abilities. If your target viewers are not at all Internet savvy - don't ask them to download files or add software to view your site. If your viewers are older - use a larger font and use a font that is a True Type font so that the majority of the computer systems will view the font you want them to view.

3. Keep your navigational bar clean, clear, and consistent. The same buttons should be available in the same order on all pages.

4. Provide your contact information on every page.

5. Be careful not to provide your viewer a "back door" to your competition. You work too hard and expend too many resources to invite viewers to leave your site for your competitor's site.

6. Although providing your viewer with educational articles and links about ADR - you don't want to overload them with information on your site - instead invite them to contact you or to use your personal library.

7. Make changes to your site at least bi-annually and inform your clients and prospects about these changes.

8. Be sure you watch your website statistics. Make note of the pages on which viewers enter, leave and spend the longest amount of time. Change your site appropriately based on these findings.

9. Use your photograph so that viewers have the advantage of a virtual introduction.

10. Keep an eye on your web hosting. You shouldn't have to pay more than $8.00 per

month in today's market.

11. Links are free. Any web designer that wants to charge you for links is taking advantage of you.

12. Most providers don't need a site that exceeds 10 pages.

13. A template is great - one of my favorites is available from Mark Johnson (a mediator himself and webdesigner) at www.TKOwebdesign.com

14. If you don't know how to code your own site you can easily hire a designer to make the changes for you. If don't need to make changes often - don't pay for them. You can hire a designer to make changes at equally low rates for "change orders" as opposed to fixed contracts. If, on the other hand, you want to make regular changes a maintenance contract may be the route to go.

15. Unless your viewers read and speak in high Oxford English - write your content using kitchen English. You know the language you use in casual conversation - less any slang.

The goal is to make your viewer feel comfortable and confident in your knowledge of ADR and their dispute. Make your site as easy as possible for them to get the information they're looking for and to reach you once you've let them know that you're the right person for the job.

If you need help with developing an appropriate website don't hesitate to contact me.

FOUR BASIC DIRECT-MARKETING SKILLS

According to Jay Conrad Levinson, the guru of guerrilla marketing, there are four basic direct-marketing skills that all marketers must know.

 1.     “The skill to write captivating opening lines. Recognize the crucial importance of the first line of copy, indeed, the whole first paragraph. If they don’t invite your readers to read on, you’ve probably lost the sale. A prospect might read at least a single paragraph. After that, you’re on your own. It’s all up to the offer and ideas expressed in paragraph one.

 2.     The skill to harness the power of a potent Post Script. Remember that it is almost as widely read as the opening line. Make your PS a restatement of your offer, your prime benefit, your main idea, a request to order right now, or even something esoteric that requires reading the rest of the letter for details. But whatever you do, don’t leave out a PS for any reason.

 3.     The skill to state your thought with brevity. That doesn’t mean a brief letter, but brief elements within it.

 4.     The skill to be different and better, not just different. Although guerrillas might test postcards, new media, unique packages and other direct-marketing innovations, they love the economy and track record of the classic package. “

 As ADR providers, one of our most powerful direct marketing pieces is the personal letter. In an age of texts, emails, and tweets, it's more important than ever to take the time to hand write your thank you notes, hand address your correspondence and make the mailing piece as personal as possible. We’re dealing with people and their personal problems, conflicts, and worries. A personally addressed piece of mail relays to the recipient that you think about each client individually and go the extra mile to achieve high quality communication.