Archives For Social Media Strategy

I’m learning that so much of what I do now is educate clients. I pray it’s helpful for them and the success of their brands. From what I’m seeing, I think it is.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockPhoto.com/axllll

Photo courtesy of ©iStockPhoto.com/axllll

It’s true, much of my time now is spent on phone calls or in email conversations educating on best practices or the “smart” way to do something. This got me thinking: “I’m working to move my clients forward on a timeline of social media and digital competence.” So here are the four stages of socia media competence the way I see them:

Continue Reading…

young-does-not-equal-skilled

This confused guy is courtesy of Forbes.com

Social Media has evolved. We knew it would and now it has.

Social can no longer be relegated only to the “young” staff person in your office. Nor can it show up only on the Intern’s job description. Social media has evolved from a “job” to a definitive “skill” I like what Jay Baer says on this subject:

Continue Reading…

Old Marketing vs. New Marketing

Old Marketing says: “You need this!”

New Marketing says: “Your friend found this to be useful. Give it a go?”

Old Marketing says: “Tracking the ROI of that billboard campaign? Riggghht…”

New Marketing says: “We can obviously track if this has worked or not. Everything is measurable.”

Old Marketing says: “Annoying.”

New Marketing says: “Welcoming.”

Old Marketing says: “Whether you like it or not.”

New Marketing says: “Only if you like it.”

Old Marketing says: “We only have them for a limited time, so make it count!”

New Marketing says: “They carry us in their pocket everywhere. We’re friends.”

Old Marketing says: “Of course you’ll buy from me. Don’t you know who I am?! Pshh..”

New Marketing says: “We start with trust first. The sale comes from the trust.”

Old Marketing says: “Push the product!”

New Marketing says: “Let’s create great content.”

Old Marketing says: “The more, the better.”

New Marketing says: “Let’s let the community decide what ‘better’ is.”

Old Marketing says: “But wait! There’s more!”

New Marketing says: “Once we’ve earned your trust, you’ll want more.”

Old Marketing = Bullhorn.

New Marketing = Magnet.

Your customer knows the difference.

My good friend Daniel Mogg (@djmogg on Twitter) has just launched a new web tv series (powered by YouTube) called The Current. I was honored to be his second guest ever! We talked about all things social media. Here are a few of the topics covered:

  • Why should companies consider using social media as a part of their marketing strategy?
  • Once a company is using social media, what’s next?
  • What resources can a social media newbie use to learn the industry and best practices?
  • Yellow Leaf Marketing’s new Instagram Project: #YellowGram
  • What’s next for social media marketing?

I really did have a great time chatting with Daniel during this interview. I’ve included it below if you’d like to take a look.

Here are a few of the links to resources mentioned in the interview:

Mashable

Social Media Examiner

HubSpot

#YellowGram Project

The ROI of Social Media

April 5, 2012 — 2 Comments

The ROI of Social Media
 
It’s beginning to sound like a broken record…

Question: “How can we measure the ROI of Social Media?”

Answer: “We can’t measure the ROI of Social Media, it’s just important that we’re there!”

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Recently, I found my way onto the Radian 6 website. Radian 6 is a leader in the world of social media monitoring and they have countless amounts of valuable resources for download on their website. This ebook caught my eye…

Continue Reading…

First, let me start with this…

Roadblock #1 – Asking “What?” instead of “Why?”

All too often I hear the question “What should we be doing with social media?” I think this is the absolute worst question you could ask at the outset. Rather, ask “Why should we be using social media?”. Asking the why instead of the what does two things:

  1. It takes the organizational focus off of social media and puts it back on the overall objectives your organization has.
  2. It takes the pressure off  of having to re-invent the wheel for social media. Achieve social media success by doing what you already do – except now you’re using social media as one of your many tools to do it!

Content Marketing... It's time to roll the D.I.C.E.

I’ve been in those meetings where someone mentions the need for a Content Marketing Strategy and the one who this was mentioned to has a rather confused look on their face. It’s ok. Content Marketing has been around for a very long time. Some folks do it really well and others, well… don’t. I thought I would try to simplify this whole thing for my clients, so I came up with an easy-to-remember-acronym… D.I.C.E. Since this is somewhat unfamiliar territory for most companies, it is a bit like rolling the dice! It’s assuming risk by taking action! Rolling the D.I.C.E. also answers the Who, Where, How and When of the Content Marketing Strategy.

So here it goes…!

Continue Reading…

Before this dead horse is truly dead, I’d like to beat it just a bit more. Brutal, I know.

Today @Mashable posted an infographic created by the very talented folks at JESS3. The infographic creatively lays out engagement statistics across the world’s largest social network. Mr. Zuckerburg’s, that is.

It got me thinking some more about the ways companies and organizations try to talk to these 800 million+ Facebook-ers who, on average, each have 229 friends. The stats laid out below tell us how the average Facebook user spends their day within the social network.

…the long-short of it is… IT’S SOCIAL. IT’S CONVERSATIONAL. IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE.

Your marketing messages will fail, while your competitor’s engaging conversation will thrive and create raving fans and life-long customers.

Enough from me, let’s let the statistics do the talking. Your target audience is there. Do they know you are too?

Before you start crunching your pretty little numbers, let’s get clear on one thing…

Is social media confusing you?

The right game-plan takes away any and all confusion...

Continue Reading…