That is one good-looking and functional Twitter post.

The Social Media Manager

I’ve spoken previously about social management and how there is no real benchmark for outlining what process must be followed in
order for someone to be deemed a ‘great’ social media manager. As we investigate these challenges, I would like you to keep in mind that YOUR opinion matters here.

• The Sliding Scale: A core challenge for social media managers is the proliferation and idealization of the notion of ‘good enough.’ Managers think that if it ‘kind of works,’ then it works, and that’s a win for the strategy. This is NOT true at all. In fact, social media requires above and beyond attention to detail, on scales we have yet to measure. All we know is that the brands that do the best, don’t do the most – they literally do ‘the best.’ Average work can’t be acceptable in social management.

EXAMPLE: Posting any old image along with a Facebook post vs. posting a specially designed infographic that complements your Facebook update. The interactions and shares you’ll get from the ‘created from scratch’ image will be much, much higher.

• Content Integrity: Another issue with social managers today is that they tend to ‘copy’ the tones, styles and formatting that everyone else uses. Unfortunately most people using social media do it for personal, and not sales-based reasons. To guarantee the integrity of your content, and to make sure that it stays in line with your overall social media goals – you need to formulate your own ‘in-house’ set of content parameters: style, tone, format, spacing, rules, toolkits and the like.

Check out how we space our Facebook posts, to get additional interactions!

EXAMPLE: Using unique spacing on both Facebook and Twitter, to gain more fans and follower. This may be a sub-strategy, but it’s one that matters as your content assets grow over time.

• Content Asset Management: All content that is created is an asset. If you’re a financial manager, you manage your assets carefully as they are pretty much the most important parts of your daily business. It’s the same with content, and I’ll tell you why. Content has the ability to become very profitable, very quickly, for no particular reason at all. When this happens, you better hope you have a content asset management strategy in place. Then you can leverage this boost and convert it into sales.

EXAMPLE: A blog post that you posted 3 years ago suddenly ranks on Google page 1. You receive a ton of traffic and interactions because of this out-dated post. Bad practice would be to ignore it and continue posting new stuff. Good practice would be to investigate WHY the content has suddenly escalated (like stock does), and capitalize on it. That means finding out why the search term is suddenly more valuable, or why the topic is being explored again in your niche. Then you should create new content on that topic, with that keyword to maximize the traffic flow and gain additional sales from the ‘asset conversion.’

This is just the beginning of a whole list of problems that social media managers have been encountering. Now I’m going to invite you to leave your core problems here. I will do my best to help you solve them over the coming weeks.

Don’t be afraid to detail the problems you’ve been having below! I love to help.

Or…join our Facebook page and get instant updates as they happen.

Courtesy of juliagillmor.com

Idea Generation and Instant Inspiration

As a social media manager you already know that coming up with good ideas can be tough, on a day-to-day basis. That’s why you need to know where to get your daily dose of inspiring content that gets the idea machine going. Here is where you can get inspired:

#1: Subscribe To YouTube Channels

YouTube is seriously one of the best ways to source information today. Even if you don’t sign into an actual account, the algorithm that governs YouTube will track what you like to watch, and give you suggestions based on those past videos.

When you specifically use YouTube for niche inspiration, the algorithm will do all the searching and legwork for you – all you have to do is open the site! You’ll instantly get a list of news, music, entertainment, popular and recommended feeds that will help get those ideas flowing. Subscribe to the channels you love.

#2: The Social Bookmarking Sites

Use sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon to explore the web. On StumbleUpon for example, you can sign up and tell the site what you’re interested in. Then it will take you through new and exciting sites that Google has never shown you before.

When I’m out of ideas, I often nip over to StumbleUpon, and use their random search tool. You can find some incredible sites and people out there, who are hidden in a sea of SEO. This is especially good for bloggers, social managers and people looking for niche content.

#3: Circle The Right Google+ People

There are some people on Google+ that are full time curators – or at least it seems that way. If you happen to come across one of these individuals, you’ll immediately notice how they post 5-10 fresh pieces of highly engaging and interesting content every day. You can use these suggestions to inspire blog posts or new Pinterest images.

The trick is to shop around for the right people to circle on Google+. If you can do that, you’ll have access to at least 30 people that are brilliant at finding inspiring content – so you don’t have to look on page 3045 on Google to find a fascinating article.

#4: Other Niche Blogs

I love seeing what other niche bloggers are up to, and where they are getting their content ideas from. It’s often from other influencers in their network, or from personal experiences that they have. Sometimes you can encounter a post that was written so well, it sparks ideas in your own head about a niche subject or issue. Use it to create new content.

#5: Specific Pinterest Pages

Pinterest is a world of inspiration and images. If you can’t find anything inspiring in copy-form, there are plenty of great images, tutorials and infographics to get those ideas moving. Find boards that you like and make sure that you visit them often. The best image curators will post several times a day, so you’ll never be short of image inspiration.

Courtesy of webbythoughts.com

#6: Browse The Online Libraries

There are libraries online that contain endless books, journals and publications that can add a bit of spice to any subject. All you have to do is subscribe to get access to thousands of quality materials. Sometimes this is the best way to ensure that you are providing your fans with the quality of content that they deserve.

#7: Certain Twitter Feeds

Twitter is a knowledge hub for social media managers, and it’s brimming with inspiration! Just use your niche hashtags to find the latest news or story. You can also follow influencers in your niche, to hear what they have to say about the news in your industry. Then you can use the opinion of influencers to inspire you, for excellent content ideas.

#8: Key Facebook Business Pages

‘Fan’ or ‘like’ key Facebook business pages to get the latest information coming up on your feeds every day. This is a great way to source expert information as it is published. As you know, time matters with content creation – so getting the story down first is very important to getting people interested in reading it.

#9: Become a Fan of Meme Sites

Interestingly enough, meme sites have evolved into more than simply ‘joke sites.’ They contain a lot of good information and social commentary about the latest news of the day, and can present interesting concepts in creative ways. If you’re really stuck for content, try searching a niche topic on your favorite meme site for a fresh perspective.

#10: Use Amazon, Etsy and Ebay

Where can you find out what is hot and happening in the world of niche sales? On sites like Amazon, Etsy and Ebay of course! Checking in to see what is new on these major selling sites is a great way of staying informed. Simply search for new books in your niche, new products, or bestsellers. Some of them can be surprising and inspiring!

Make a point of checking in on a few of these sites each week, to keep yourself informed. Even if you don’t need any new ideas, it’s never a bad idea to keep your finger on the pulse of your niche, and these sites will do it for you. If you aren’t using StumbleUpon, Pinterest and Twitter to help you find fresh content, start doing it now! It makes all the difference.

Where do you find inspiring, interesting niche content? Any sites or methods to recommend? Leave them here.

Courtesy of soshable.com

The Incentive Based Social Media Campaign

Not too long ago the spotlight was once again on customer relationship management in social media. Research conducted by Resonance, recently indicated that 77% of social media users look for some form of incentive-based engagement.

Even more shocking was the stat that 50% of all companies using social media, don’t use it properly – which actually drives customers AWAY from their brand. It’s imperative that all social media strategies include a way to ‘give back’ to your customers – a way of thanking them for their loyalty or interactions with your brand.

Here is how to ensure that you give back each week:

• Always have a competition running. Competitions will get you likes, shares and email sign ups. It’s nice to run one now and then, but you should be running some form of competition at all times. Set the time limit to each month, add a decent prize and begin promoting. This gives your brand the impression of giving back to your fans.

• Publish promo codes on your Facebook page: Every week, publish a new discount promo code on your Facebook cover page. That way, when fans visit your page, they instantly gain access to a discount, every week. They will appreciate the savings, and you’ll get more visits, fans and interactions on your page.

• Ensure that you are solving problems, instantly. The second most desired trait of a good social media brand is the ability to problem solve for their clients. Some 46% of customers expect instant responses on your pages. Make sure you are there to deal with their concern, and they will love you for it.

Courtesy of mslgroup.com

• Always provide your customers with entertaining content. A whopping 28% of all of your fans expect to be entertained when they land on any one of your social media pages. Have you ever even measured how entertaining your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Pinterest pages are? Time to sort that out.

• The free giveaway. Every 3 months, your business needs to give something to ALL of your fans, absolutely free. It could be an exclusive coupon, a free gift, a large discount – something that will make the average customer ‘like’ you more. It’s fickle, but that’s how you improve customer retention on your social pages.

With these tips you could rapidly expand your fan base, and contribute to converting your existing fan base into customers that purchase from you more often. After all, if they aren’t buying, giving you feedback or additional exposure – they’re useless community members. You want to use each member, and transform them into advocates for your brand.

How do you give back to your clients? Tell me about your latest discount, deal or gift.

Courtesy of cahootsblog.com

The Social Media Manager’s Job

Every brand should have a document (or contract) that details what is expected of their social media manager on a temporal basis. Because there are few benchmark brands that have done this, companies are hiring social media managers that get away with doing practically ‘nothing’ but ‘messing’ around with social media.

• Social media is about STRATEGY
• Social media is about CONTENT creation and management
• Social media is about ROI

When you take these three things into account, you’ll realize that perhaps your social media manager isn’t doing enough to justify their salary. Social managers need to use the right tools and they need to know when to use these tools to aim for their predefined goals.

• Social media managers should set weekly, monthly and bi-annual goals
• They should be concerned with community growth and REACH
• The blog and email list should be a central concern

What Brands Should Expect To Receive

I’ve heard a lot of terrible stories about a young, dynamic media professional entering the field of social media management for a brand, only to be fired 3 months later. What went wrong? A lot!

• Untrained social media managers don’t know about paper trails and reporting

As a social media manager it’s your job to PROVE to your employer that your social strategies are working in the short and long term. That means that you need to document EVERYTHING that you do, to cover your actions.

• If you order content, you need a good reason to do so
• If you need an ad budget, you need a good reason
• If you need to increase your Facebook fan base, you need justify a budget for it

Courtesy of socialmediaexaminer.com

Just like an advertising manager, it will be your job to show your brand manager reports on your progress. If you can sufficiently prove (via previous tests) that one element of social advertising, content publication or marketing works, you will get your budget.

But if you approach your brand with a few more Facebook and Twitter fans, and zero tests and reports, don’t expect a happy ending. Social media is about the numbers – just think of yourself as an accountant for people instead of money.

• Ongoing reports need to be kept for each platform
• Ongoing reports need to be kept for each content strategy
• There needs to be one overall weekly report
• The month will consist of 4 weekly reports and the months highlights
• Graphs, charts and stats need to be created every six months
• Six month progress reports are based on 24 weekly reports

When the social media manager needs to inflate the content or ad budget for a product launch, or an event – the numbers will show them exactly where to invest for best results. This is how you improve, learn and grow your employees brand over time.

What part of social media management do you find the most challenging?

Courtesy of mediabistro.com

#1: Slow But Steady Growth For Google+

Google is fighting to keep Google+ growing, but linking it to everything – including the new Google Glass offering. That’s why since June 2012 to March 2013, the social network has grown by 33% to 359 million active users. Perhaps it’s time to get on the bandwagon?

#2: Baby Boomers Are on Twitter

Wondering which demographic to reach out to on Twitter? Try the baby boomer generation, they are the fastest growing age demographic on the platform (55-64 years old), that’s a 79% increase in active users!

#3: 46% of Facebook Fans Expect Customer Service

We know that people are expecting direct customer service from your small business at an increasing rate, but eMarketer.com recently released a study that proved over half of your fan base expects it from your Facebook page right now.

#4: LinkedIn is a Global Business Network

LinkedIn continues to grow, but Visual.ly recently reported that most of its users were outside of the USA – 64% to be exact. It’s become a great place for international business contacts.

#5: Mobile Increases in Popularity By 60% to 818.4 Million

People love accessing ssocial media via their mobile phones, but it’s becoming so prolific that phones are nearly the primary way they do this. It took only 2 years for mobile users to increase to nearly a billion people.

Courtesy of socialbureaucrat.blogspot.com

#6: YouTube Reaches More People Than TV

It’s official! YouTube reaches more US adults between the ages of 18-34 than any cable network currently in existence. Time to invest in your YouTube channel!

#7: 5pm is The Official Twitter Posting Time

In a recent Kissmetrics study by Dan Zarrella, he took a look at the question – what time do I post on social media to get the best results? The answers were at 5pm on Twitter to get the most retweets, and at 1pm on Facebook for the most shares.

#8: Ad Revenue on Facebook is About Mobile

In a recent stat, 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from mobile devices, which means that it’s time to boost your mobile marketing strategies this year. Create ads for phones, and they will have higher conversion rates.

#9: 1.1 Billion Facebook Fans and Counting

Need to know how many users all the best social media sites in the world have attracted? Facebook sits at 1.1 billion, YouTube at 1 billion, 500 million for Twitter and 225 million for LinkedIn. Pinterest is still growing at 48.7 million users.

#10: 70% of Consumers Trust Social Proof

If you need a method of selling more, then it’s time to invest in brand recommendations from people in your social networks. Research confirms that 70% of all consumers trust these recommendations from friends in their network. That means higher sales!

Wow! Now these are some surprising statistics! It just goes to show how fast things can change in such an evolving niche. Use these stats to improve this month’s marketing tactics, and sell more products than ever before!

Which stat did you find the most surprising?

Courtesy of tumblr.offerpop.com

Tip #1: A Thoughtful Pinterest Promotion

The people on Pinterest love sentiment, which means Mother’s day will be a big hit. Pick a product of yours and have a tutorial image made. To spice it up, have your mom be the presenter in the image!

Tip #2: The Mother’s Day Hashtag

Everyone is going to be using Mother’s day hashtags this weekend, so be sure to create yours and get the word out. Get your mom to hold a sign with your hashtag on it, and promote it across your social pages.

Tip #3: The Viral YouTube Video

Mother’s day is a great reason to be non-traditional – so do something different with your promotions to get the ‘alternative’ crowd buying from you this week. Or try looking for alternative markets. Single dads are moms too!

Tip #4: The Facebook Share

People all over the world will be looking for a beautiful image and words to send their mom on Facebook. Create something incredible and then brand it by subtly putting in a link to your sales page URL. Lots of people will share it.

Tip #5: Facebook Cover Opportunity

If you haven’t yet used your Facebook cover for a discount, Mother’s day is a great time to test it out. Create a fun, heartwarming cover that promotes your goods and services, with a special discount for moms only.

Courtesy of aviewfromthecave.com

Tip #6: Create Blog Posts For Your Email List

Create a series of 3-5 blog posts centered around Mother’s day, and attract traffic to your newsletter sign up page. You could even advertise that all moms who sign up get a free mystery gift! Make it worthwhile.

Tip #7: Run a Mother’s Day Competition

Use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to run a successful Mother’s day competition, where a special mom can win something amazing. Clearly state that each entry is only valid if they sign up to your list, like your Facebook page or share a specific post.

Tip #8: Start a Mother’s Day Board

Holidays are great because they drive tons of sales. That means if you invest time and effort into curating great images for your Mother’s day board, it will convert over time. Plus, you’ll end up growing your community and making more sales.

Tip #9: Give Something Back

Remember in the old days when you used to get a 13th donut for buying a dozen? Old fashion loyalty tactics like this are back in. Send everyone on your email list something special, like a coupon or a free ebook. Mother’s day is about appreciation!

Tip #10: Social Proof For Exposure

Mother’s day is photo day, which means that you have a unique opportunity to get shots of your mom and your brand together. Do something special for your own mom, and use the photos to send a message to your fans. They will love the intimacy and your community will grow.

What are you doing for your mom this Mother’s day? Anything special?

Courtesy of sellorelse.ogilvy.com

The Social Media Sales Funnel

As a small business owner and online marketer, you probably already know all about the social sales funnel. It can drive traffic to your websites and sales pages, and make those crucial monthly sales that will keep you in the green. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have a secondary power that you need to learn about.

These social media sites should be used as a supportive tool to promote carefully selected items that will help CLEAR out stock that isn’t selling, or will boost SALES items that aren’t performing as they should be. This is called individual product promotion, and it’s used as a secondary marketing strategy to keep your online sales healthy and growing.

• Use social media to sell one item in bulk
• Use it to clear out old stock
• Use it to sell stock that didn’t perform as well as planned
• Use it to sell expensive items that move slowly
• Use it to sell cheap items that move quickly

As a social media manager and business owner, it’s always your goal to make as many sales as possible. This is possible with long-term marketing and social media maintenance, but sometimes you’ll come across opportunities for blow-out sales. This is when you need to use your social media pages to sell in bulk, to everyone!

Identifying Individual Products For Mass Promotion

As you sell online, you’ll begin to notice and track what people want, what they don’t want, and how they behave on your storefront pages. I’ll never forget coming across some strange analytics data that prompted a new social media strategy for me a while back. I had my good sales, my great sales, and my poor performers – as all stores do.

Then I noticed I also had a particular product that was being visited like crazy, but no sales were happening. The bounce rate was even low – people were reading the product descriptions and looking through the images. Demand was there, but sales were not. I decided to give this product more exposure on social media sites.

The result was that by the end of week 3, I had run out of stock. I had also made a ton of extra sales, simply by honing in on a problem, and finding a solution to it. Here’s basically what I did, and how you can do it too!

Courtesy of socialselling.com.au

• I set a goal for the product: one month to sell-out
• I dedicated my financial resources to creating content for the promotion of this one individual product
• I had 10 additional images made, 3 infographics, 2 tutorials, and the rest were product images (some were used in real-world situations)
• I created a series of 5 blog posts around the product, and 2 guest posts that I used on some of my friend’s blogs
• Each image was paired with social media content. For Facebook I did high impact updates, for Twitter high converting tweets. Pinterest and Flickr got the images.
• I let my LinkedIn groups know about this special product sale
• I used other social media promotional tools like StumbleUpon, Dig, Reddit and Delicious
• I created a brief talking head video outlining why people should use the product
• I created 5 sales emails linked to social media pages, and a newsletter dedicated to exposure for this one product

I spent very little money, and the return on investment was large. I think there’s a good reason why this worked so well on my social media pages. For once, my customer base wasn’t being told to go and look at products. They were being told to buy a specific product, which is much more streamlined and efficient.

Secondly, my social media community helped make my images go viral – which meant that I managed to get thousands of viral views on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter because the content I created was credible, interesting and usable by other people or sellers. It reminded me how sometimes we just need to focus on the little things.

Yes, overall sales are important for your storefront – but having micro strategies can often lead to better results than you think. I sold maybe 3 or 4 of those products before this campaign, and moved literally hundreds of products by week 3.

Thanks to my social media infrastructure I got more fans, and even additional sales at my online store from one product promotion. That’s why today I’m giving you some homework to do. If you have an online storefront brimming with products that aren’t selling, try choosing and promoting just one. Have solid reasons for choosing it, via analytics.

Courtesy of flyingstartonline.co.uk

Then spend the next month launching a full-scale exposure campaign, focused on this one thing. See how it goes. I bet that the sales and the traffic returns will surprise you.

Adding these micro strategies to your overall marketing strategy will almost always result in a boost in site sales. Plus, you get the added bonus of getting rid of products that aren’t really selling.

The next time around, you can find some products that sell better, and add them to your inventory instead. Analytics is about performing these tests and changes, and utilizing the social media power of exposure to keep your profits rolling in.

I find that these strategies are very useful just after the holidays. Who wants to buy a Christmas tree ornament in January? Quite a few people actually. It’s just about using your social media networks to find them.

Have you ever tried focusing all of your social media power on one product? I’d love to hear about it!

Courtesy of admixsocial.com

Latest Facebook News

In the latest social media news on Facebook, the prolific social team is going to be introducing hashtags to the platform. Like their competitor Twitter, Facebook is desperately searching for easier ways of indexing huge amounts of content. Luckily, the hashtag is used in several other places, and doesn’t uniquely belong to Twitter.

Courtesy of facebook.com

This social media news has delighted some Facebook fans, and outraged others. A Facebook spokesperson mentioned that these hashtags would be used to group conversations. So look forward to many Facebook conversations in the future, with added hashtags in there for emotional meaning. #Justanotherfacebookfail?

What’s Going on With Pinterest?

Finally, a shiny new analytics tool was released on Pinterest recently, which is definitely a positive improvement for business page owners. Social media news like this is always good, as it’s important to keep track of your daily marketing stats and data. You’ll be able to see how many people have pinned your content, clicks, impressions, views and more.

Business owners will be scrambling to integrate this new on-page tool into their weekly data analyses, so that they can get more followers and leads.

LinkedIn Changes to Note

LinkedIn has made a bold move to buy a new app, called Pulse. It’s a news reading app that already has 20 million users – no small amount. Social media news sites were brimming with speculation about this unconfirmed rumor – and LinkedIn is staying tight-lipped about it. The app recommends certain content to you based on your activity and likes.

Courtesy of venturebeat.com

If LinkedIn is looking to extend the media side of their business, then Pulse would be a great buy. We’ll have to wait and see if the business network giant closes the deal.

Twitter Updates of Importance

Twitter Vine continues to be the leader in the field of 6 second looping video clips. While competitors like Cinemagram, Viddy and Socialcam have started to decline – Vine continues to grow thanks to Twitter’s social context. Social media news like this proves that certain apps can only survive in the long term market, when they have a solid user base.

Courtesy of mashable.com

Google Evolves a Little More

Google decided to kill the Google reader this past week, which has caused an absolute uproar with the social community. People seem to like the reader that Google has decided to shut down, they’ve even signed a petition to save it. It doesn’t seem as though this social media news has made Google change their minds. They’re still going to stop the service.

Do you have an opinion to express about the latest social media news, you’ve read here on SMMU? Tell me about it!

The Countdown To Better Social Media Practices

Courtesy of freshtightdesigns.com

#1: Social Media Marketing is a Game of Hide and Seek

One of the greatest pieces of advice I was ever given about social media marketing, is that it’s a game of hide and seek. We are programmed to think that if we do our content strategies correctly, we will be rewarded with lots of fans and interactions. That’s just not true. As content competition grows, only 2 things will save you.

The 2 things are – competitor content analysis and consistent content publication. Your competitors are publishing all the time, effectively ‘hiding’ your content so that no-one can find it. To stop this from happening you need to ‘seek’ out their strategies and outdo them! Social media marketing only works well when you publish often. Very often.

#2: It’s Not About Who You Know, But What They Know

Social media marketing experts are always telling people to connect with authorities in their niche. This is great advice – no doubt. What they leave out of course, is that once you have connected with an expert, you need to somehow access their knowledge and use it to further your own business goals. This is much harder than connecting with someone.

So, it’s not who you know, but what they know – that’s what really helps you. Can you get them to write guest posts for your blog? Can you make them an actionable part of your marketing campaigns? If not, then they are useless. The only way to turn an expert into a friend is to give them great content. Share their posts. Become an advocate.

Courtesy of blog.greenhousesocialmedia.com

#3: Patience and Platform is Key to Everything

In social media marketing, there are two stumbling blocks that can make or break a new campaign. They are patience, and platform
choice. The social internet moves likes lightening, except when you need it too! That’s why being patient is an essential trait of a successful social media strategist. Wait and see – that should be your testing motto.

As for platform – don’t be put off an idea, just because it didn’t work on your chosen platform. Many small business owners fail to run a successful Facebook competition for example, so they never run another online competition again. What about Twitter? Pinterest? Vine? The madness can be in the platform and not the method, you know.

#4: Choose One Social Platform, and Master It

Bad advice tends to stick to small businesses, which is why you’ll often find empty social pages all over the place. Social media marketing is about building a quality presence on a single platform. Then mastering that platform. Then combining your efforts – and stringing together a few great pages to make an impressive social profile.

It’s not about being on a thousand networks – even the ones you haven’t heard of, in Russia. If you only have time to work properly on one platform, then pick one. Social media is about ROI, not owning empty social real estate. It’s nice that you’re there, but if you can’t convert your social media marketing fans into buyers, there is no point.

#5: Automation Does Not Give You Automated Results

Let’s get something straight – it’s good to automate some of your social media marketing processes. But so many people think that ‘automation’ means ‘leaving your pages alone, to run independently of you.’ This isn’t the case. You still need to check in every day, and respond to people. You can’t automate conversation, you’re not Skynet!

Automation used properly allows you to publish tips and tricks at your leisure, but it is no substitute for quality interaction. Social media marketing has way too many pages and feeds that are automated. This is a two-way conversation, not a microphone.

#6: Content Curation Saves You Time and Money

Social media marketing us all about content. You need to supply your social media pages with high quality content that engages your audience. But how do you do this when you’re a small business owner with limited time and money? By curating content along with your original content. Don’t only be an authority be the most rounded, current news in your niche.

Courtesy of seo4anyone.com

#7: Sometimes It’s Okay To Try Something Spontaneous

You have probably read somewhere that planning always comes before success. We become so obsessed with plans, that we forget that sometimes it’s alright to just try new things. Innovation comes from all sorts of places. It’s great to be a good planner, but don’t also forget to be that social media marketing person who isn’t afraid to take risks.

BONUS! One Piece of Advice You Always Get, and Should IGNORE!

Don’t let your employees use social media! This one single piece of advice has kept small business owners from rapid growth because of social media. Let your employees be advocates for your brand, just lay down some ground rules first. They will help you with the exposure that you need to drive traffic and increase sales.

My hope, is that these seven pieces of social media marketing advice have changed your perspective on certain parts of your own marketing campaigns. Maybe now you can re-evaluate your strategies and integrate something really powerful into your online business plan. After all, good advice is only good if you take it!

Is there a piece of social media marketing advice that you would like to share with the SMMU community?

Courtesy of thegreatdiscontent.com

Who is Seth Godin?

Seth Godin is a public speaker, an entrepreneur and an author. He has contributed most to thought leadership in social media and online sales. He is the owner of ‘Squidoo’ the popular community site where people can add their own ‘lenses’ and earn money via advertising. It’s one of the 500 most visited internet sites online.

Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Seth Godin first wrote about inbound marketing or ‘permission’ marketing years ago. Basically, it’s your job to earn the attention of customers by making yourself easy to be found. But it’s so much more than that – it’s about creating value around your brand online. Instead of looking for customers, you leave a breadcrumb trail and they find you.

Courtesy of thebhd.com

Lessons About Inbound Marketing

• One way to rapidly improve your inbound marketing strategy is to invest in SEO. This is because SEO streamlines how much traffic your site is able to attract – a vital process involved in any Seth Godin approved permission marketing.

• An inbound marketing process follows a strict set of steps. These steps usually involve attracting traffic, converting traffic into leads, and leads into sales. Secondary cycles include retaining these leads for repeat sales.

• The core concept of inbound marketing according to Seth Godin, is the ability to be found. That’s why it’s important that your company is on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. They create your online profile.

• The working part of any inbound marketing strategy is content. This principle declares that if your content is great, it will create a powerful pull to your site.

• Inbound marketing is also about relationships and using these relationships to spread your content around the internet. If your posts are on multiple blogs for example, more people will know your name and find your products.

Courtesy of etsy.com

• Seth Godin preaches pull over push marketing, no-hype, poor salesy content or false advertising that was big in the old days of print.

• Apply the attraction principle to each social site to see how powerful it can really be. This means optimizing everything, and adding continuous content daily as a foundation rule. That’s non-negotiable!

Inbound marketing is something YOUR company needs to be working with everyday. If you haven’t discovered the type of marketing technique that you want to use just yet – this is it. It’s the foundation for all quality marketing processes online today.

Marketing experts like Seth Godin will tell you that the more you focus on attraction – the better off you’ll be. People have too much choice these days. You can’t compete based on price, size or vicinity. But you can certainly compete based on attraction!

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Do you agree with the concept of inbound marketing?