Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don't Use Social Media
Are you the only person at work who likes to read blogs? Is it your job to sell things to people who would probably throw you out of their offices if you said the word "twitter?" Are you trying to reach audiences who've never visited a social networking website because they've heard those sites are used by no one but virus peddlers, sex fiends and 14 year old losers?
Sometimes it feels like social media is just not relevant to the people you're trying to reach. That's a common dilemma, but we believe it doesn't have to be that way. In this post we discuss five strategies for using social media to reach people who don't use social media, and we've listed specific tools you can use to do it.
All of the strategies and tools below are most effective when they're used well - it's easier said than done.
- Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap Inside Other Organizations
- Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events
- Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere
- Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren't Aware Of
- Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life
You may want to target senior executives, older people or others who just aren't very likely to read your blog posts, Twitter messages, etc. but chances are - those people have co-workers, family and others in their lives who would. By adding value to the lives of less senior people inside organizations, you can gain mind-share with the people in whose interest it is to make good recommendations to their superiors at work.
Similarly, many mainstream journalists now participate in social media conversations for their research. Making yourself known as a topical expert to them online can help increase your visibility when it's time to write a story off-line.
Here's a recommendation we offered to one non-profit organization that we often use as an example now for others.
Let's say you work locally on a particular issue and you're interested in getting traditional press coverage. One way to pursue this is to subscribe to a feed for national media outlets, filter that feed for keywords related to your topic of interest and keep your eye out for breaking news or important topics on the national level. You might even set up an RSS to SMS alert.
Then, when a story comes out in the New York Times about water quality, food transport costs, or whatever your issue of interest is, you can contact local press about it and say "I don't know if you've seen this national coverage on this topic [they probably haven't because you've automated watching for it] but if you're interested in a local angle, our Executive Director/CEO/[or insert more down to earth person] is a good expert source for a local perspective."
You don't want to do that too often, but occasional and appropriate use of this tactic should be appreciated by the press you reach out to. It's mutually beneficial for both parties and could help you get that coverage in traditional media that's more likely to be read by your off-line target market. Even the smallest organization could grow its mind-share in mainstream markets quickly using tactics like this.
Tools to use for these tactics: For general participation and visibility among the social media users that do exist in your area of interest, check out Twellow.com for a directory of Twitter users by industry, do some searches on FriendFeed.com and find out what the top blogs in your area of interest are using the methods described in our post "Six Ways to Find Top Blogs in Any Niche." Just participating with like minded people in this space will move you up on their list for biz dev and marketing.
If you're not familiar with RSS feeds, start with this introduction: RSS in Plain English. FeedRinse.com is one of the easiest to use feed filtering services. Feed filtering is also available inside Zaptxt.com, one of our favorite RSS to IM/Email alert systems. See also Pingie, a new alert service we've been using and Alerts.com, an even newer one we wrote about this week.
There may or may not be relevant events in your field that are attended by non-social media users and are listed on sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful.com. It's worth a look and worth subscribing to the RSS feeds for those searches.
More likely, perhaps, is that your local newspaper's website has those kinds of events listings. Trade associations, nonprofit groups and other kinds of sites often have events listings as well. What has this got to do with social media tools? You can subscribe in the same RSS feed reader that you read blogs in to those event listings. All too often there aren't feeds available, but there are tools you can use to create them (see below).
Tools to use for this tactic: An RSS reader, be it Google Reader, iGoogle, MyYahoo or another - there are lots of options. If events listings aren't being published by RSS, here's what you can do. Find pages where they are listed, scrape a feed using Dapper.net (see how to do this) then filter the feed for keywords related to your industry if need be using a tool like FeedRinse.com or Pipes.Yahoo.com if you feel brave. (Want a 5 minute screencast intro to the basics of using Yahoo Pipes? Well there you go.)
For example, I just scraped a feed from my local paper's news site event listings, then ran that feed through Yahoo Pipes to filter for tech or startup related events. The end result? A feed that's empty today but could deliver just what I'm looking for later - mainstream events that I can attend after having learned about them using new tools on the web.
Feedburner, Google's RSS publishing service, makes it easy to offer any RSS feed, including the one your blog should publish automatically, as an email newsletter. There are lots of companies that buy AdSense links on Google for links to their websites and blogs for key search terms. Your marketing department may write guest editorials in traditional press already and any other traditional marketing campaign can lead people to an "email newsletter" page - really your blog with email subscription.
If your target audience doesn't read blogs or participate in social networks, they probably do like email. This is an easy thing to do and can prove quite effective for non-technical audiences if framed in a non-threatening way.
There were 5 billion videos watched on YouTube just by people in the US in July. There are people in your industry using LInkedIn, we guarantee it. Where are people talking about you or your industry online? Check out Kingsley Joseph's Social Media Firehose to find examples (click the "list" button to see a list view of links).
A couple of other places to look include Ask.com's blogsearch, sort by popularity, and the social bookmarking site Delicious, where you can search for and subscribe to the most popular or most recent bookmarked links by keyword. You'll want to use the site in different ways depending on your field. http://delicious.com/popular/chiropractic may not unearth a lot of resources, but http://delicious.com/tag/chiropractic+blog looks pretty interesting, for example.
The best way to use social media to reach people who don't use social media is probably just to use social media to kick more ass. You may be the only person in a meeting that reads blogs (unlikely, really) but that doesn't have to be what people notice; the fact that you know more, sooner, about your shared interests (as a result of reading blogs) well will be a big help.
Easier said than done? Check out our recommended tools in this regard:
Check out our article about how to find the top blogs in any niche and then combine those sources with the methodology describe in our post How to Find the Weirdest Stuff on the Internet (or the best content on any topic).
We also recommend taking those top sources you identify and turning them into a Google Custom Search Engine, which is remarkably easy for even the least technical people to do. Search against those top sources as reference and you'll unearth all kinds of useful knowledge from the archives of your industries online experts.
Build your reading list with the tools described in those posts above and you'll be using social media to advance your career and connect more effectively with more non-users of social media.
We Think it Can Be Done!
Participation in these technologies is expanding rapidly, but a huge portion of the world is still not likely to read this blog post, for example (their loss!) much less to connect with the kinds of communication we all share on a daily basis.
How do these strategies look to you? We'd love to know what methods and tools you've found particularly useful in using social media to reaching outside of the echo chamber. Let us know in comments.
Image at top: "Nuke!" CC from Flickr user Jaako
ShareRelated Entries
2 TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4885
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Interesting perspectives, we are currently addressing this same problem in our industry - reaching and attracting educated and affluent, non Web 2.0 users, especially corporate decision makers.
in my experience, even light social media users are on linkedin
Excellent post as usual, thank you for the valuable insights. As a student in the school of Marshall K. I know a few of these tips, but there is always room to be better.
-Kevin
Any ideas how this can be of use to the homeless in any way?
Always a very helpful and instructional post, Marshall!
Really appreciate reading these practical tips. Hope I get my head screwed right and not drown in too many info.
Best.
alain
Reading these senseable tips has made me realise just how dependent we have become on social networking, as its now just a way of life.( Well done )**
awesome article!
i was just thinking about this subject, "how to reach other co-workers and show them that web 2.0 and social media network is a good thing"
well done! :)
What a great post - I found you guys through social media and the ride keeps on getting better and better -
Thanks for the advice, it is hard to reach a lot of people, especially those part of an older generation who don't utilize social media tools or just don't spend as much time on the computer. I really like the tip about using your blog as a newsletter to reach them that way and to promote your blog.
Craig
www.budgetpulse.com
This is fantastic and exactly the type of how-to that people are looking for. By breaking it down you have made it easier for people to know where to find the relevant conversations and to get involved. Thank you!
Good subject Marshall!
I would add one big thing to the list of five.
BE RELEVANT AND ACTUALLY ADDRESS AND SOLVE A PROBLEM.
The reason I personally love "Readwriteweb" is because you guys work hard to give me quality content. I just love it. And believe me if quality, relevance and problem solving were the core foundations of social media sites, then people would visit and stay.
In the meantime, I keep enjoying yours!
Vivian
why try to reach them at all? Leave them be..
Tons of people are using social media for a hundred different reasons. Some for business, some for personal, some for marketing, some for sales, some for fun. You need to know how to reach those people and this is a good article to get started with. Be creative with whatever you do in social media.
Brian
http://www.konnects.com
This is a perennial issue wwhihc you have touched upon here. The jewellery industry in India sees this as a huge reason for not adopting the internet as its buggest chunk of customers are not internet savvy.
I especially liked the "blog to email" idea as this alone can capture a huge chunk.
As always, Marshall, you are amazing. This article will come in handy in helping my approach with the more Luddite folk at my firm!
Really great article on this topic Marshall: very thorough. Thanks a lot!
Nicholas
Great post :) I had never heard of Twellow before today.
Thank you for your guidance!
I would appreciate if you could explain us how to use Twellow effectively without being indiscrete and without annoying the users.
What a great networking tool, looking forward to using it .
Thanks so much for this informative post. This is the first post I have read by you Marshall. Sign me up right now as a fan!
Fantastic information, I use most of these tips daily.
Here is a real beginner question. How did you create those screen shots? Please don't laugh, I have tried but mine come out so tiny.
In my experience most people are members of one community or another. What makes is social is the degree of their participation.
How to get people to participate socially? We the same thing as meeting a new person in real life. Share something about yourself to engage the other party.
To every action there is and equal and opposite reaction ;O)
Very Informative and helpful, these tips are so useful. Thanks, great post.
Loved the cartoon
This is quite helpful in the realms of social networking, but is it not a bit jounalist centred as it's all about news articles?
I am part of an advertising firm looking how tools such as social networking, wiki's, tag clouds etc can be used in a corporate sense and trying to reach the older workers, who, even though they use a computer and the Internet everyday are still on dial-up at home!
I like Twitter and i'm in the process of checking out some of the other sites you have recommended. Thanks for the help.
Excellent post!
I'd like to add "Compile mind-blowing stats" to the list. As a consultant I find compelling statistics presented in a simple way to senior management often work wonders. It is often easy to take a published stat and derive something new out of it.
Example: Alexa shows that 22.1% of the world's internet users will use YouTube today.This can be turned into a mind-blowing stat upon doing some quick research as to how many people use the internet.
The result (presented on a nice clean white slide with a big YouTube logo)...Approximately 336,635,443 people will log onto YouTube today.
Replicate this for every other compelling social media stat out there and you will have senior management calling their managers during your presentation (I've personally witnessed this).
For a good example take a look at this presentation:
http://tinyurl.com/55bkog
Cheers,
MK
I don't recall who twittered this post but some great examples. The fact that chiropractic was mentioned makes it much easier for me to share with others in my industry. Trust me, many are still in the fax machine days of yesteryear but students turning providers will soon change all that.
Fantastic Post...great stuff...glad somebody put this pretty much all into one post...at least for what we can today.
I don´t know how, but I see a lot of people that don´t use internet and have profiles created in sites like explode.us how is that possible?
In the nonprofit philanthropy field, our older demographic does not seem to be the type involved in social media, so this article is helpful. It reminds me that there is a purpose to social media, even in our case. Thank you!
This are very useful suggestions. hard to get all this points at once but I'll read the again to get a better understanding. Thanks for the tips.
Great post!
The topics you choose to blog and the way you write on them is another great way to reach to people. If you write on what exciting is happening around you related to your domain, then your blog can easily create buzz and go viral.
Good on I like it
Of course is worth reading again, no one gives you detailed info like this. Thanks Marshall!
This was a great read. Very detailed and to the point. I think over the next few years, social networking will become much more mainstream. Students coming out of college have all grown up with the internet, so it will be getting more and more popular. I think the hardest part is finding a way to help business through social networks.
Thanks for this tips! it is absolutely useful!
this is truly amazing and very good! I hope to see more!
Check my site too it has alot of funny pictures and has alot of fun! Thanks hehe!^.^
Escoofield -
http://alotofit.com
Thank you for explaining this so clearly. If social media is viewed from a marketing perspective, rather than a technical one, non-tech-savvy people will be better able to relate to it and more likely understand why it is so important.
When the only tool you know how to use is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Sorry but I don't get the picture. Is the tag on their backs the key to understand?
WOW! This was great! Even as one who uses all of these technologies your post made it friendly for everyone to follow. Another online/offline event service is the E.Factor. http://www.efactor.com/p/events and Gary's Guide http://www.garysguide.org
Great article, people that are not familiar with social media will eventually involved in the social space, it'll just take time.
Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don t Use Social Media.
Excelent information to promote your business.
You are so right! Social media is becoming the prefered way to keep in touch with a wide array of client types. I have seen a huge increase in the use of twitter. i know a few real estate investers that keep in touch with their financial backers via twitter. when they find a property they want to buy they send out a twitter to findout the interest. They have been able to complete financing for projects within hours of seeing a property. Social media is really coming into its own.
Thanks for the explanation. very helpful.
This is really a worth reading. Thanks.
I found Stumble Upon superb service in many ways, and especially to filter content and even finding and connecting power users that are not accustomed with web2.0
Just by editing your Stumble profile and focusing on the niche category, you will be served with quality sites each time you press the button. Those sites were stumbled event without the knowledge of the owner, but usually are there because of the quality content they provide. You can then use regular contact site info to get in touch with the owner or whoever is the representative.
It's working for me all the time :)
Literature Response
This is a great tool to help me teach BabyBoomers who are late adopters to reach the Boomer non-adopters, especially while conducting a job search.
My sincerest gratitude.
This is great topic! Thanks for the tips.
Can we now hear about 1,000 ways to reach people who don't use Social Media without using Social Media? Ideally we should also hear about top reasons why using Social Media puts you in the bubble of delusional entrepreneurs who think hoping for the same luck as company XYZ gives you a viable exit strategy... Eh.
1 2 Next