The Social Media Marketing & Communications guide for Natural Health and Wellness insiders.

Sweetener Under Fire: How Coconut Bliss Used Social Media to Protect Their Reputation in Real-Time

In early 2010 anti agave syrup sentiment was gaining momentum, led in part by articles by Dr Mercola like this one – viewed 385,958 times at last count.

Mercola article damning agave syrup

Google search “agave dangers” today and you’ll get nearly a million hits.

That could be very bad news if you’re a natural foods dessert company using agave syrup as your sweetener – which is precisely the position Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss found themselves in.

Tweet Links to Drive Clicks (Not To Drive Your Ego)

Twice today I’ve seen natural product brands tweet a link to a media story about their product. Both times the brand ignored the original headline and theme of the story and instead tweeted a headline that was all about them.

For example, say the Globe and Mail just published a story about natural approaches to managing high cholesterol. And hooray – they included a mention of your product!

Their headline: “Natural Health Companies Capitalize On Consumer Safety Concerns About Cholesterol Drugs.”

You might be tempted to start tweeting: “Read about us in the Globe and Mail! <link>!”

Here’s why you need to think twice:

What Place Does The V-Word Have in Your Business?

There’s been a lot of talk about transparency and authenticity in social media over the last couple years, and I’m noticing an equation:

Transparency + Authenticity = Vulnerability

When your natural health business participates in transparent and authentic online (and real-life) interactions… it becomes vulnerable. You open yourself up to hard questions and critical feedback. That’s scary for a lot of businesses, but especially so – I think – for established natural health brands.

The health food/NHP industry has long had to defend itself from detractors of all sorts, and I understand the hesitancy of a business to let down their guard and give the public deeper access to the people, ideas and realities that truly drive the organization.

But denying vulnerability might be a dead-end.

There. What you just read is how far I got with this post when I started it about half a year ago. It’s been sitting in draft form until now.

Two things happened recently that have me typing away on it again.

Use Twitter to Turbocharge Your Company’s Tradeshow Success in Just 3 Easy Steps

Friends, Fans, Followers and Contacts – An Argument For LESS

Whether it’s Facebook fans or friends, Twitter followers, or LinkedIn connections – there’s an almost unchallenged belief that more is better when it comes to Social Media numbers.

If Social Media channels were simply free advertising, perhaps this would be true. After all, the value of any advertising vehicle has traditionally been determined largely by its reach – ie: The value (and cost) of advertising is proportional to the number of people it reaches.

But Social Media is a different game – a game where “advertising” is generally the least effective approach and where numbers can be misleading.

Focus Your Attention and Build Engagement on Twitter with ConversationList

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming. Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, step-by-step actions for improving your social media performance. On Tuesdays, but not every Tuesday.)

Many thought leaders agree that “engagement” is an important aspect of any Social Media business plan, but I continue to see many natural health and wellness businesses struggling to engage people online.

Conversationlist is a free tool that helps you build engagement on Twitter.

What I Learned From The CulturedCare “Free Gum” Twitter Giveaway

A twitter giveaway or contest can be a great way to get people talking about your brand or product.

A well-conceived twitter event can connect you to new markets, grow your twitter follower numbers, generate word-of-mouth interest and even get you media attention… all of which are potential building blocks for sales and growth.

If done right, your twitter event will also boost your search engine rankings (SEO), driving new visitors to your website… often overnight.

Tuesday Tweaks: Set Up Hootsuite for Twitter!

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, step-by-step actions for improving your social media performance. On Tuesdays, but not every Tuesday.)

Are you still tweeting from Twitter.com? Do you find it cumbersome and wonder why they don’t make a more user-friendly interface? There IS a good reason.

Rather than try to please everyone, they keep their design basic and make their data available to third party developers. This means there are dozens (hundreds?) of different twitter “programs” “clients” “apps” “platforms.” Whatever you wanna call em, they all organize twitter data in their own unique way, giving users choices of how they want to view tweets and interact with their twitter communities.

Tuesday Tweak: Embed Twitter Search Columns in Your Website or Blog

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, step-by-step actions for improving your social media performance. On Tuesdays, but not every Tuesday.)

When Prairie Naturals asked me to help them generate conversation about their ReCleanse Whole Body Herbal Detox program, I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done in this industry before.

Hence… “The ReCleanse 7 Day Twitter Review.”

Starting today, about twenty participants will tweet in real time about their experience using the program.

The details of “The ReCleanse 7 Day Twitter Review” are on their Facebook page, but what I really want to share with you right now is Hootsuite’s tool for embedding a twitter search column directly into your website or blog.

Twitter for Business – CNHR Article for natural health retailers

Social Media Happy Surprises – Stories from the Frontline of Natural Health

Social Media is full of happy surprises. Unexpected opportunities are a fringe benefit of participation. Many companies initially enter social media with hopes of quickly “driving sales,” but the smart people usually discover other benefits to the bottom line… Benefits to PR, HR, and the larger sales cycle, plus personal connections with the people who matter most to their business.

Here are four Social Media Happy Surprise stories from Nature’s Path, Naturally Savvy, Edible Vancouver and CulturedCare Probiotics.

Nature’s Path

“A great surprise Nature’s Path experienced through Twitter was when we were able to connect with our local Board of Trade for an initiative to help the homeless. The Board of Trade put out a call on Twitter to local companies to donate products to a program it was launching to deliver food, water and first aid supplies to homeless and vulnerable communities in our area. We just happened to see the post and were able to deliver product the next day. It was such a good news story, that it was reported in our local media.”

Kylie – Nature’s Path
http://www.naturespath.com/
http://twitter.com/naturespath

CHFA Expo West: Highlights from the Trade Show Floor (Part 1)

The CHFA Expo West 2010 show is over, and I thought I’d recap a few highlights with you.

Prairie Naturals (Full-disclosure: client) received a record breaking FOUR awards at Saturday evening’s annual CHFA awards. Congratulations to the Prairie Naturals team, to the other suppliers who were nominated, and to the retailer nominees and winners.

Prairie Naturals have gone from “zero to sixty” on Twitter and Facebook in just a few months and have enjoyed some big wins. I’m proud of them .

Interestingly, the winner of this year’s Retailer award – Community Natural Foods -is also using Twitter and Facebook to deepen their customer experience.

Of course all of the industry’s big NHP players are present at the annual CHFA Expo events, but what I want to focus on today are some of the up-and-comers that caught my eye with their innovative products and/or remarkable branding.

Tuesday Tweaks: Un-Sync Your Social Media Platforms

Don't Tangle Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, step-by-step actions for improving your social media performance. On Tuesdays, but not every Tuesday.)

Many people in business are tempted to synchronize their Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn posts. This means that when you post to one, you post to all. I think this is a grave mistake.

Social Media “Happy Surprises” – Share Your Story!

Social Media is full of happy surprises. Unexpected opportunities are a fringe benefit of participation. Sometimes these “Happy Surprises” and unexpected opportunities are truly remarkable.

I’m collecting a limited number of (short) stories from leading natural health and wellness businesses for a special upcoming feature in these pages.

The theme is… “Social Media Happy Surprises.”

I would love for you to share a short story (aprox 100-200 words) about a remarkable “Happy Surprise” you experienced on Twitter, Facebook or your Blog.

(see below for full details… and to see what’s in it for you)

How To Use Twitter For the CHFA Expo West Show: #chfaexpowest

Going to the CHFA Expo West show?

Using Twitter to connect with your customers and B2B colleagues?

Want people to find you at the show?

Then you’ll want to include the hashtag #chfaexpowest in all your tweets that relate to the show… before, during and after the show. Using a hashtag in your tweets makes it easy for show attendees to find show-related tweets and to follow show-related conversations. You’ll be able to simply do a twitter search for “#chfaexpowest” and see a current list of all tweets that include the hashtag.

It’s a simple and powerful way to cut through the noise on twitter and connect with the people at the show.

Tuesday Tweaks: Put Keywords in Your Facebook, Blog, Twitter Titles

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, one-step actions for improving your social media performance week by week.)

Do you know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? How would you like to get the benefits for free, just by tweaking what you’re (hopefully) already doing?

Your customers, prospects, partners, and the media all search the internet every day for the information they need. They use Google, Bing, Yahoo and other popular search engines. These search engines now include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media content in their results.

Bottom line – When people search for information that relates to your business, you want them to find YOU.

Search Engine Optimization simply means that you optimize your online presence (your website and various social media sites) so that when people search the internet, your brand comes up on top. SEO is a crucial part of any successful website or online presence.

Until recently SEO was still a very complex (and expensive) proposition. You hired an SEO specialist to add keywords to your website meta-tags and do a bunch of coding and back-end stuff that most people don’t really understand. Many companies still pay big bucks for SEO consulting to improve their search rankings and get more website traffic.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Many SEO specialists provide very good value.

But I’m going to show you one single tool to drastically improve your SEO – to connect you to your target market – without spending a single extra cent or taking any more time out of your day…

Customer Retention Part 2: Social Media For Building Brand Loyalty (aka Likeability)

Do You Let Customers Get To Know You?

Brand Loyalty is a huge issue for many natural health businesses.

Recently I reported that 68% of customer loss is due to indifference. (ie – They don’t hate you. They’re not dissatisfied. They just don’t care about you enough to choose you over the competition. Painful but true.)

I also suggested that you could retain the majority of these disappearing customers simply by being likeable.

So how does a business demonstrate their like-ability?
Consider this: To KNOW you… is to LIKE you.

How well do you let your customers really get to KNOW you? Is the owner or CEO of your company blogging (or do you just have a generic company website)? Are your sales people encouraged to develop real, caring relationships with customers (or is it “strictly business”)? Are you interacting on your Facebook page (or just posting your latest sales offer)?

Twitter Your Way to Success: CHFA ExpoWest 2010 Seminar with Justice Marshall

(NOTE: Only CHFA members can attend CHFA Expo West events.)

From the seminar description…

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogging… Social media is rapidly changing the way customer and B2B relationships are developed and managed. How can YOU use these tools to build brand loyalty, synergize strategic partnerships and ultimately improve your bottom line?

Whichever online medium or strategic approach you choose, there are four crucial principles to observe. This seminar is for social media “newbies” who want to get started right, and for intermediate users who want better results. You’ll come away with a roadmap and concrete examples of how to use these four key principles to participate successfully in the social media arena.

See you there!

Tuesday Tweaks: Hotlink Your Company Website on Your Facebook Fan Page Profile

(There’s so much social media advice out there that it can be overwhelming! Tuesday Tweaks are the antidote… simple, one-step actions for improving your social media performance week by week.)

Today’s Tweak: Hotlink Your Website in Your Facebook Fan Page Profile Box

Part of the reason you have a Facebook Fan page for your business is to direct visitors to your company website right?

So make it easy for them! Many fan pages include a company website address (beginning with www. etc…) in the profile box that appears on their “wall” sidebar (beneath your profile picture).

But you can do better.

Twitter Spam: Gift in Disguise

A Gift... For You!

We all hate spam. Which is why it’s such a big opportunity when it shows up in your DM inbox on Twitter.

People don’t usually mean to send it. They’ve just unwisely given account access to an unscrupulous third party (spammer) application.

Twitter spam generally starts as a phishing ploy.

Trends change, but messages usually look something like this: