When is Social Media a Primary Marketing Tool?

Let me be the first to say that social media is a brilliant tool. It can enhance every aspect of your marketing plan from Public Relations to direct mail. Although… there is a time and place for everything. It is extremely important to realize the potential of social media can either be a primary or secondary.

When should social media be used as a primary tool?

If you are building a personal brand, social media can be a huge driver to increase a following or “fans.” Many small businesses are run by so-called thought leaders… The visionaries behind the brands that are being built by the thousands. Small businesses must rely heavily on referrals and word-of-mouth marketing and what better tool to help the process than soacial meda. As you advance in a community of clients and customers you can use social media as your primary source of marketing.

Whether social media can be defined as a medium or a tool (later post) is not the point. Arguing over semantics hasn’t helped anyone in the past. You have the opportunity to build your brand.. both personally and professionally. Embrace it.

This is the first time in history when millions of people are just a click away. You can’t get any better than that. So how should you get start on your online brand development?

• Do your customers even care? Make sure you do not negate your current clients. Keep picking up the phone.
• Research what others are doing in the area. What are your competitors writing about? How can you be different? How can you do it better?
• Start a blog. Sign up on WordPress.com and start writing (after the research, of course)
• Go to CommonCraft and get update on the more recent tools on the Internet. They will help you in your social media quest.

And remember… be conscious of your people. What makes them tick?

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Is Gen Y Going to Leave Facebook?

I “grew” up on Facebook. It is true.

My sophomore year of college is when Facebook hit the campus of Anderson University like a firestorm. Everyone was joining talking about the internal messaging and laughing at the pictures being posted over the first couple of months. It was the epitome of a 24/7 party but online.

Gen Y (millennial) have ruled Facebook for the last couple of years but that is changing… rapidly. Online Media Daily describes the changing tide of demographics on the social media powerhouse:

“Facebook is aging fast. The number of U.S. users over 35 has doubled in just the last 60 days, according to new data from Inside Facebook.”

Baby Boomers are also taking advantage of Facebook… rapidly. What is a Gen Y to do?

I have been having multiple conversations lately about the generation clash that is about to happen on Facebook. With parents and family members joining the social network I believe we are going to see a shift in younger users moving on to other platforms. Maybe.

It is debateable. Can the Gen Y users get comfortable with their mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, and uncles joining THEIR network?

What do you think?

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The Job-Seeking Student’s Social Media Toolbox

Today’s guest post is by David Spinks. David is a student at SUNY Geneseo, an freelance interactive analyst for Ruder Finn, a social media enthusiast, a big Giants fan, an athlete, a gamer, an artist and many other things depending on who you ask. You can read this thoughts and opinions at DavidSpinks.com.

______________________________

We grew up on livejournal, then upgraded to myspace, and finally matured to facebook. College students know their way around a social media platform, that’s for sure. The problem is many students limit themselves to the one or two big sites, or tools, and fail to recognize the great amount of potential these sites and other sites can offer you in your job search.

I have been using multiple social media tools while at school to connect with a lot of professionals that I would never been able to meet otherwise. From these connections I have been able to create a few job opportunities in a very tough job market. Make use of your social media toolbox, connect and collaborate like you were raised, and create opportunities for yourself!

Google Reader

The first step to establishing your presence in a field is to know what is going on in that field. Search for blogs by professionals and subscribe to their feed. Most news sites will also offer an RSS feed that you can subscribe to.

A good way to build a list of blogs to follow is to look up blogs on google, find a couple good ones, then look at their blogrolls. Usually good bloggers can recommend other good blogs. Try to subscribe to blogs with slightly different ideas so that you’re not only hearing one side of discussions.

You can also create a feed based on keywords. All articles that google finds with that keyword will then be fed into your reader. This is another good way to find more blogs to subscribe to.

When you start looking for jobs, you can subscribe to job boards and have all openings fed into your reader.

Twitter

If you’re not on twitter already, you probably should be. If you’re skeptical of its value, there are plenty of great articles written explaining the value of twitter as a networking tool, and articles to help you get started.

Through twitter, you’ll be able to connect with seasoned and new professionals; allowing you to learn from their expertise, offer your own insights, and if you play your cards right, create job opportunities.

Once you’re comfortable and established on twitter, you’ll be able to keep with the most recent trends, innovations, and news in your industry. If you have a question, ask your loyal followers and receive instant responses. The greatest thing about twitter is that almost everyone is willing to help, myself included (@davidspinks if you have any questions).

Linkedin

This is a great tool that will not only allow you to create a professional presence online, found easily on search engines, but will also allow you to connect with professionals in your desired field from all over the world. You can use twitter to create connections with like-minded professionals, and stay connected through linkedin.

The Answers section is a great tool that I like to use every so often. You can discuss different ideas and prove your knowledge / enthusiasm to other professionals. If your answer is good enough (the “best answer”), the person who asked the question can grant you “expertise” under that topic.

Blog

These networks are great, but if you really want to create a name for yourself start your own blog. You need three things: Thoughts and opinions on your field of interest (if you don’t, you should probably reconsider your career) some writing skills, and time that you can commit to updating your blog.

Setting one up is really easy with services like wordpress (I use it) and blogger. Read up on some articles that provide advice on how to start a blog and get started! You can use your other social media tools like twitter, linkedin and even facebook to drive traffic to your blog.

Your blog will allow employers to see that you’re involved in the industry, you’re enthusiastic, and allow them to get an idea of your writing skills which may matter depending on your field. It will also give you a good google ranking when people search your name, unless you share a name with someone famous (I get a lot of hits from people searching “the great spinks” looking for the boxer).

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It is About Experiences Not About Sales

Tuesday I gave a keynote at the Hoosier Hospitality Conference in the beautiful city of Indianapolis. The presentation was over the future of online communication and what it means to business and the tourism industry. While giving the keynote… I stumbled across a recurring theme…

The value of experiences over the value of a sale.

When you are using social media as a tool in your marketing mix… It is important to remember how the world is changing (in terms of communication).

People are craving experiences. We have experienced decades of 50% off and last chance now sales ads. We have been pushed multiple advertisements in the span of a thiry minute television show.

1st mile. Billboard. 2nd mile. 5 radio advertisements. 3rd mile…

We all get the picture don’t we?

Everyone says they have excellent customer service. Everyone has a half-off sale.

Not everyone can create unbelieveable experiences for their clients. Show the experiences. Show the respect and trust.

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25 Tools and Tips to Following Your Brand Online

There are plenty of ways to keep track of the conversations taking place on the Internet regarding your small business or your personal brand.

I wanted to create a list to help the beginners of social media marketing keep track of what is being said on the Internet.

1. Sign up for a business Twitter account. Start following and joining in the conversations!

2. Sign up for an account on HowSociable. Awesome tool.

3. Create a Facebook Fan Page. Invite your friends and clients to the page. It will help you keep track of your contacts as well as the conversations surrounding your brand.

4. Are you already on Twitter? Use Twitter Search to follow keywords across the millions using this awesome tool!

5. You want another Twitter Tool. Twilert allows you to sign up for email notification when something is mentioned regarding your brand.

6. Want to follow the conversation on Facebook? Try out the Facebook Lexicon.

7. Creat a folder (or a separate email address) to keep track of all the search happening online regarding your brand. This will help with organization.

8. Yahoo Pipes is an amazing tool that helps you organize content and alerts. Check it.

9. Did somebody say something about your brand? Make sure you respond. Respond as quickly as possible.

10. Search for any word on Twitter using Tweetscan.

11. Watch any personal branding video you can find by Gary Vaynerchuk.

12. Did you come across a negative comment? Respond in kindness but strategically. More often than not.. you will kill the negative comment just because you were listening.

13. Do you know how your industry is trending in the online environment? Check out Trendpedia.

14. Create a LinkedIN group for your business. This could be a great way to keep employees communicating. There is no reason you should be doing all the work!

15. Read the Quick N’ Dirty Social Media Monitoring Guide.

16. Do whatever Comcast is doing in the social media environment. Most of the time… they are doing it the right way.

17. Get over the fact that social media is not a black-magic… my college kid only uses it… tool. It is here to stay.

18. Would you rather pay for a complex monitoring service? Try Radian6. I know.. I have a small man crush on Radian6.

19. If you don’t have a blog… start one. It is important to be creating the content with the other content creators… why? Wouldn’t you rather someone be forwarded to your personal opinion rather than a landing page and brochure site?

20. Andy Beal thinks you should check out Backtype to monitor blog comments. I would agree.

21. Try 123People. That is far as I am going to go with that one. You just need to try it out.

22. Keep a watchful eye. Set aside a couple of minutes a day (once of twice) to check our online brand management. It is important to create the habit and stay on top of the conversation.

23.  According to Roger at ContentandMotion… you should be trying MonitorThis... “brand search on acid.”

24. For the more technically advanced… try Filtrbox.

25. Constantly read. read. read. We will never be ahead of the curve if we do not invest in ourselves. Subscribe to Wired. Whatever you do… make sure you stay on top of your game.

It is extremely important to at least implement one or two of the tools listed above. There are 1.5 Billion people with Internet on the planet. 81% of the entire global population is near a connection.

4.5 Billion mobile/internet devices will be on the market in 2010. The world is changing… are you going to change with it?

Don’t Shoot at Fish in a Barrel. Blow the thing up!

Jeremiah Oywang has been ON FIRE the past couple of weeks with his posts regarding social media. I went through the slideshare (above) a couple of times and wanted to share.

When it comes to social media marketing you either understand the tools and then reach the customers…
or understand your customers and then find the tools!

Which choice do you think will grant you more success? The second.

Small business owners and business professionals are scraping to learn the tools presented to them. Whether it is for their personal use or for external marketing, they learn the tool and then broadcast it to catch the fish. They are choosing a gun… learning how to use the gun… and then firing into a barrel. Blow the thing up!

If you created a strategy and you understand your customer you don’t have to shoot anything… you will destroy the competition and the market. You will be picking dead fish up off the ground and cashing in. Dead fish apparently equal revenue/sales in my mind.

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Social Media is Valuable but Broken. We Need to Work Together.

There is always debate.
There is always debate on the topics of social media… the black magic of the business world. Should we do it? What is the best way to do it?

Traditional marketing, advertising and PR firms do not know what to do. “Social Media” companies do not have enough traditional strategy to make something stick. We are all scraping to find something to make this powerful tool work. It is going to be a long process of customization, personalization, and strategy.

My company, Brandswag, started out as a small business design and marketing firm in Indianapolis. We have thus grown to a 5 person shop dealing with graphic design, web design, and social media/internet marketing. The transition happened pretty naturally because all of us were so involved in social media already… Why not try to leverage this amazing tool for business benefit? And it has worked… to an extent. The tool is broken. Social media should be used strictly with a traditional strategy. Hire a traditional marketing firm. Hire a Public Relations firm.

This is not the “save-me-from-the-economy” tool. It is a new thing. It is a new product that is being slowly pushed and pulled apart to make it work. I am far from an “expert” and there are only a few that can take that title (Chris Brogan and Douglas Karr). We all have little pieces of the pie to maximize a marketing strategy.

What are we to do? Work together.

Traditional marketing, PR, and advertising companies need to open up their minds to the tool and also the opposite way. Social media and internet marketing companies need the traditional strategy and marketing of the agency. Let’s work together to measure and get results.

We are all in this together. We have (at our fingertips) a tool that could transform the way we communicate.

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