Learning is a constant and a necessary part of our jobs as fresh produce marketers. And while the majority of the our lessons at DMA Solutions come from practicing our craft and absorbing the wealth of knowledge available in any format we choose to use, occasionally we get the opportunity to learn directly from a marketing guru. Last week the DMA team was thrilled to participate in a free live webinar from Social Media Guru Guy Kawasaki. (Thank you Hubspot!). Kawasaki presented 10 tips for building a social media following and we were not only validated in many ways, but inspired to be even better at our social media marketing. Here are 6 highlights we took from Kawasaki that we believe are part of the journey from great to guru.

1. Build your social following as soon as you decide to sell something.

When should you start building your social media following? Kawasaki explained that if you are trying to sell something, you should have already started. Social media gurus start building their platforms the moment they decide they have a product or service to offer. Start the entire process by writing it, marketing it and establishing it all at once.

2. Know how to address the different audiences on each of the social networks.

Social media gurus understand how to transform their key messages to fit the different functions and audiences of each social media platform. For example Guy broke it down like this:

• Facebook is all about sharing things with the people you already know
• Twitter is about broadcasting your perceptions with anyone in 140 characters or less
• Google+ is about connecting with people who share your passions, even if you don’t know them
• Pinterest we express ourselves and find things that interest us, but there isn’t a whole lot of engagement.
• And finally, on Linkedin we “pimp ourselves” by positioning how great we are to others!

There’s a different way to share and engage on each network, and gurus know how to harness this.

3. Ten to One: Helpful vs. Hype

Social media gurus restrain themselves from being overly self-promotional by crafting a majority of their content to be helpful info for their followers. Kawasaki recommends that for every 10 pieces of content shared, only one should be pushing something “promotional.”

4. Listen, respond and engage.

We have experienced firsthand and shared the importance of listening when it comes to social media management for years, so it was great to hear Kawasaki echo the importance of responding to your fans and followers. Social media gurus don’t just blast out their content and participate in one-way pushes; they also listen and watch the reactions to their content and respond when appropriate.

5. Stay positive even when acknowledging negative feedback.

Getting consumer complaints or negative posts on social media can be challenging to deal with, especially in the fresh produce space. Social media gurus know how to deal with these comments effectively by acknowledging the problem but taking the conversation offline as quickly as possible. We find that it is best to apologize, remain positive and ask them to email you separately allowing you to discuss their concerns in private.

6. Repeat content.

Generally speaking, it’s okay to post, tweet and update in large quantities. Facebook pages reach about 16% of their fan base organically and with Twitter’s all-day average click-through rate (CTR) of 1.65 percent (4.25 percent around 6 p.m.), each post or tweet may only reach a small percentage of our audience. Social media gurus know their audience is not always online at every moment and they don’t always scroll back to see updates, so they often repeat the same content over the course of a few days.

We were encouraged when Kawasaki shared with his audience that social media experts should always “practice what they preach.” As strong believers in the power of social media for fresh produce marketers to reach and influence the consumers of your fresh products, we will continue our commitment to learning and sharing each week on The Core blog.