“Putting Social Media to Work in Your Business” With Tim Haran Senior Manager of Social Media at USANA Health Sciences
Enjoy this episode of The Teach Jim Show (http://theteachjimshow.com)
Tim helped launch USANA’s social media department in 2008 and now manages the award-winning What’s Up, USANA? blog, as well as the company’s Facebook pages &Twitter streams — which include more than 100,000 fans & followers.
Tim Haran
USANA social media has either won or been named a finalist for nearly 20 awards. Tim was named PR News Blogger of the Year & Digital Communicator of the Year in 2010.
Below are my notes. Enjoy!
Activity
The heart of how to use social media in business building is ongoing consistent activity. Look at what USANA is doing to keep their message fresh and congruent with the needs of their audience.
Good Content for Audiences
Guiding principles drive much of what USANA is doing to grow their business. Notice the key underlying principle is what is good for my target audience. USANA has several key audiences and must balance thir messages with the needs of customers, associates and share holders. Their focus on lifestyle and personalizing their brand has helped to make their social media precense amplify their brand.
Personalizing their Brand
Real people and real interactions makes for authentic communications and a very believable story. The USANA story is all about people and their socail media interaciton make connections to real life experiences.
Frequency
Consisent actions make the momentum of any social media effort work. USANA grew into the level of activity they now maintain. Initially it was once a week. This is a pretty good idea for all of us using social media. Consistant efforts make it doable. As social media really does become a part of your business you can ramp up the frequency of posts and interacitons.
- Daily Blog Post
- Several Facebook update
- Regular Twitter Interactions
Fervancy
The underlying principles driving USANA’s online activities determine how intently they share their products and services with their audience. Always being driven by the value they add to the lives of their audience dictates a lot of the content they share online. Lifestyle and real needs of their audience determine the tone and flavor of the content they provide and the interactions that follow.
- Responsive
- Value contribution
- Livestyle and personality
Blog
The What’s Up USANA blog is the cornerstone of their social media strategy. Many of their online interactions grow out of content on their blog. They now make at least one post a day. Each post prompts Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other status updates. Reactions to the topic and discussions engaging their audience grow from these posts.
- Consistant
- Series
Coordination
The entire social media effort at USANA is a coordinated effort. There is the compliance department and the marketing department that provide guidance and direction to the day to day interactions. A publishing calender connects the efforts of different authors and the topics and series they will be delivering. Marketing events also feeds into the communication mix. Because all efforts are coordinated and guided by sound principles the whole thing works. Hats off to Tim Haran and the USANA team.
- Compliance
- Principles of Practice
- Daily interactions
- Marketing
- Authors
- Platforms
- Google+
- YouTube
Leadership
Early on USANA could see that social media was going to be big for the network marketing industry. They decided in 2008 to explore social media with more intensity.
- This is going to be BIG
- Fun and Informative
- Responsive
How Did Tim Learned What He Knows?
Social media is ever changing and requires continual learning to keep up. Working with a team makes the learning much more effective. By having each person concentrate on their area of expertise and sharing what they learn the team continually grows. There is so much more to learn and keep up with than a single person can keep up with.
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