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 hotspotpromotions.com

What is a Follow Up?

In old school sales, a follow up was a very valuable method of converting interested parties into buyers, even if cold calls or initial marketing materials didn’t work. Remember when a nice man would call you, offering you a great deal on the latest vacuum cleaner? You hated those calls! In fact, you would tell him you’re not really interested and put down the phone.

Then you would briefly think about the deal, and go on with your life. A week later, the same salesman would call back and remind you who he is. Then, he would offer you an additional discount off the vacuum cleaner. At this point 1) he’s not a stranger anymore, but a real person 2) he has genuinely offered you a good deal.

Nearly everyone in the market for a vacuum cleaner would buy one from this nice man. Following up on ‘almost’ or ‘not interested’ calls rapidly increases conversions. At least 30% of the time, people change their no to yes. Even more people buy from you later on, in their own time. Vacuum sales skyrocket!

This SAME principle can be used in social media, to boost sales and increase communities.

The Good Old Email Follow Up

Emails! I can’t tell you how many spam mails I get in my inbox every day. Then there are those ‘spam’ or ‘cold call’ emails that are well written, polite and worth reading. A new design firm has opened and they are sourcing new clients – great. But do you care or click on their services? Nope. You dismiss the mail immediately. No-one has time for that.

Why do you dismiss the mail?

• You immediately think the email is mass delivered
• You don’t expect to ever hear from them again
• You have no problem being ‘rude’ to a spambot

But what happens if you receive a mail from the same person – 3 days later? The mail says something along the lines of, “Hi, my name is X, I sent you a mail 3 days ago asking if you were interested in one of our services. You haven’t responded to me, so I thought I would drop you a line.” Suddenly, your perspective changes.

• Maybe there is someone EXPECTING a reply
• You could actually hear from this person again
• You know they are real, and most people won’t be rude to a real person

Out of pure etiquette, many, many more people will respond – refusing the service, or taking the business more seriously by checking out their website. Either way, you’ve won. They’ve entered your social sales funnel. One day, they will be buyers.

The Twitter Follow Up

Twitter! There are so many tweets every day, I barely get a chance to read the ones from people I know, never mind the direct messages from people I don’t know. But I ALWAYS pay special attention to people that bother to ‘follow up’ on the initial introduction.

The second direct message I receive from someone could be important, I nearly always click that link. Most people do. This is because it’s human nature to notice faces that keep popping up trying to get your attention. With the right pitch, I will click your link and I will join your other social pages, or sign up to your email list.

That SECOND follow up tweet is way more effective than the first. It proves that you’re real, that you want to actually interact, and that you have something to offer me. Many marketers even incentivize the second interaction to seal the deal.

SIDE NOTE: How do you differentiate your tweets from the ones above and below you in the hashtag feed? Spacing of course! Twitter now allows line spaces between your words, which means that your tweets can be bigger than other people’s tweets. Add a space line between your text, and you’ll get higher conversions and retweets.

Courtesy of blog.propertyowl.co.uk

Facebook Direct Name Follow Ups

Facebook! It can be very tough getting fans to engage. Unless you ask them to engage by name! But even then, many fans are shy. Some will respond, out of sheer flattery – others will see it as a marketing tactic and ignore it. To fix this little issue, use the good old ‘follow up’ question.

Adding their name again in the comment area on a Facebook post, will almost certainly lead to a response of some kind. Remember that the more these fans interact with your brand, the more of your deals and marketing materials they will see in their newsfeed.

Likes are great, but comments are the winner. There is no better way to improve comments on your page, than speaking directly to your fans and using the follow up to make sure everyone participates.

To be honest, this little social-hack is the easiest thing under the sun – but it needs to be done tactfully and tastefully. Never harass your fans or repeatedly ask the same people for responses. The second time is the last time, that’s the rule.

You can use the ‘follow up’ method on Pinterest, Google+ – anywhere you have trouble getting fans to engage. Discussion is the goal for any social media post. Right now, you are used to getting a few opinions from different people. True success will come when fans are chatting to you and to other fans about your post, ON THEIR OWN.

I bet you can’t wait to try it!

Choose your follow up, do it, then come back here and let me know how it went!

Courtesy of portent.com

#1: They Don’t Know Any of The Latest Updates

As you move from campaign to campaign as a social media manager, it becomes a very important daily ritual to check out what is happening in the news. Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn – someone will have something new nearly every day.

Real social media managers will be concerned with staying up-to-date on the latest trends and patterns so that they can change their strategies periodically. If the person you’re hiring doesn’t know the latest information (or even upcoming information) they could be a poser.

#2: The Social Media Theorist

The person you have hired knows a lot about social media theory, but very little about practice, strategy and content development. This means they’ve read a book on social media, along with a few articles online, and think they are experts. These people don’t have a business view of social media, and they will think that it’s easy to get results over time.

#3: Experts Usually Know Other Experts

If your social media manager doesn’t know anyone else in the field of social media, they are probably not as important as they believe they are. The best social managers will have a close network of influencers that work within the online world. Ask your new manager if they know who Mari Smith, Michael Stelzner, Seth Godin, Jason Falls, Jeff Bullas or Chris Brogan are – these are the top social media guys in the field.

#4: I Can Get You Way More Fans

For some mysterious reason, new social managers are obsessed with growing their communities, but they tend to go about it in the wrong ways. This is because they think ‘success’ means numbers. We already know that numbers mean nothing if they can’t be converted, and it takes dozens of strategies to keep these conversions high.

If your social media manager tries to sell you the old ‘more likes, followers and fans!’ pitch, that’s all it is – a pitch. Chances are, they will make the horrible mistake of buying your fans or employing some other rather spammy techniques to get you noticed. This is the last thing you want for a brand that has barely entered the social sphere.

#5: Use The Ranking List Test

Many social media posers are only concerned with Facebook and Twitter. They’ve barely had time to think about other sites. A true social expert will not only know about Pinterest, Google+, bookmarking sites, YouTube and Foursquare – they will understand how to use each site for your brand benefit.

Administer a ranking test, by asking your potential social manager to make a list of the best social media sites, as well as what each site is commonly used for. Then ask them to write a short paragraph on how they would use these platforms to achieve more sales, larger communities and better customer service for your brand.

Courtesy of themarketingpill.com

#6: Content Separates Social Managers From Posers

It doesn’t matter what your social manager tries to tell you – social experts are first and foremost experts on content, and how to use it to achieve certain results online. All of the best social media managers plan, research, create and publish tiered content that meets a predetermined need. If your manager can’t even write, they’re not an expert.

Now I’m not saying you can’t be an effective manager, without being an effective writer. Yes, you can always hire others to do your content for you. But content strategists have to work with their own content to truly understand the process. It’s just not the same if you have content made – unless you have a serious list of features required in that content.

#7: Too Much Excitement and Obsession With Viral Marketing

If a piece of content goes viral, it becomes that much more effective. But every new social expert believes that they can do it, with barely any effort. This is because they have just been introduced to the world of social media, and they think that it’s a NEW thing, even though it’s been around for some ten years.

They won’t be able to contain their excitement, and they will make sweeping declarations like ‘I can make your video go viral!’ – but they have no idea what SEO is, and they’ve never even seen the YouTube ad backend. Be very careful of grand statements like this, it’s devastatingly difficult to make content go viral.

#8: Ask Them The Ultimate Strategy Question!

If you still can’t decide whether your social manager is an expert or a poser, there is one fool-proof question that you can ask them. “How will you prove to me that the tactics and strategies you are employing each day are working?” New social posers won’t have a clue. Some might say – analytics and not know how it works.

You’re looking for an answer like this: “I’ll begin by determining what your current social content map appears like online. Then I will evaluate your content, to determine what still needs to be done before certain strategies can be utilized. At the beginning of each week I will outline what I’m going to do. Everything will be recorded in an Excel spread sheet.

I’ll also use a dashboard like Hootsuite, Argyle Social or TweetDeck as an analytics tool to accompany the metrics we pull from Google Webmaster Tools. The goal is to reach for constant content improvement based on tests, content analysis and by implementing customer-centric decisioning throughout the process. At the end of each week a report will be compiled. These will form monthly and bi-annual progress reports.”

If the answer is nothing like this, they’ve never worked with social media strategy or content a day in their lives! If they can pass this test, then you have yourself an expert strategist!

How do you determine whether someone is a social media expert or a fake?

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 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 niemanlab.org

The Boston Bombing Recapped on Social

Breaking news. When you hear this on television, it usually means something big has happened – something that affects everyone. Social media has been become the fastest, most convenient way to get news, as it is happening. From terrorist attacks, to school shootings, this was proven just days ago once again – when the bombs went off in Boston.

It was a day like any other in Boston, except there was a large marathon snaking through the streets. An Ethiopian runner, Lelisa Desisa Benti, won the race at about 12pm. A couple hours later, as crowds still milled around the Boston streets, there was an explosion. The first social media tweet was posted at 2:50, by Dan Lampariello.

About a minute later, tweets start to add up on Twitter – there’s been some kind of explosion in Boston. There were people tweeting about seeing smoke, smelling smoke – witnessing people fleeing the course. Then the emergency services arrived, and it became clear that this was no accident, or small explosion.

As the Twitter news spreads, it reaches Reuters, sports stations and other breaking news Twitter accounts. In the beginning, the social media reports stated that it was a possible transformer that exploded. No-one knew the injuries to the people at the finish line were so severe. Some 4 minutes later, photos of significantly injured people hit the net.

Courtesy of niemanlab.org

The numbers began to rise – first it was 20-30 people injured, then 50-60. News outlets all over the world began to report on this tragedy. But it wasn’t the reporters doing the reporting – it was the everyday citizen – the people that were there, using social media. This is how they worked together to get accurate news to the people, and to help those that needed it.

• A Twitter hashtag (#PrayForBoston) began to trend
• The news networks continued with regular programming, so social media took over
• People were on Facebook and Twitter chatting to each other
• Thousands of people offered help to Boston residents in need
• Google Person Finder was activated, to help residents find family and friends
• The Boston Police and Emergency Services tweeted updates

The Google Person Finder

Google Person Finder is a web-based application made by Google, that allows people to search for friends and family when a disaster has struck. It’s a great way to find lost souls amidst the chaos, when a real disaster has taken place.

If you’ve never seen it – check it out here: http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.html

While it’s closed now for use, this social media app helped reconnect families in the wake of the Boston marathon disaster. Google is offering a real service to people in need. Perhaps more services like these will arise in the future, cutting out the need to speak to emergency personnel or police services. If they do, it will help individuals recover faster, and spare them the worry of not knowing what has happened to their loved ones.

The Horrors of Twitter Vine and PTSD

Twitter Vine is the new 6 second looping video app that has become an instant hit on the social network recently. But on Monday, the world saw horrific images on Vine, as bystanders filmed injured people, dying people, explosions and graphic imagery. These social media Vines played over and over to millions of Twitter users this week.

courtesy of entertainment.time.com

The intentions were clear – The Boston bombing was meant to attract this kind of grotesque media attention, not from the media, but from the everyday man. Those that weren’t killed or injured, became historians for the fate of their fellow spectators. This is a massive concern for citizens, in more ways than one.

• Reports of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) are increasing, as people are being exposed to horrific live events. Sometimes they even become the unwilling photographer in a panic situation.

• Terrorists know that lives events are good targets, as the news stations can’t censor social media sites like Twitter. This makes all crowded live events targets for terror.

• Terror swept through America at high speed, making social media an effective platforms for spreading chaos, fear and discord among people.

• The media is prevented from leaving out certain aspects of the bombing, that may lead to arrests or could be important in their investigations. Everything becomes public knowledge which means terrorists are always informed.

These troubling trends are proving that social media – while it is an obvious blessing in times of trouble – is also a terrible tool for fear that terrorists can and will use against US citizens. There is no regulation, the public gets to see it all. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.

The Fertilizer Plant Explosion

There has been a second disaster – the fertilizer plant explosion in Waco, Texas just yesterday. The explosion was so large it rained flames and shrapnel down on the residents of the area, some miles away. So far, 100 people have been injured, but there are no confirmed dead yet. Some reports say as many as 60 people have died.

The news outlets aren’t reporting anything about a terrorist attack – they are calling it an accident for now. Again, residents and the media have used social media to bring this tragedy to the world. According to Twitter, 200 people are injured, and 100 homes and businesses completely destroyed.

Courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

Social Media and These Rising Disasters

It seems to me that social media is becoming a very complex problem for authorities and even for us as users of the technology. It’s a double edged sword. With all the benefits we get from social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, we are also starting to experience the downside of instant news and widespread chaos.

It has become second nature for 16 year olds to stand photographing carnage as people all around them are dying in a horrific explosion. Terrorist messages are being received loud and clear, nearly instantly – and our authorities need to do something about it.

In the wake of the Boston marathon bombings and Texas fertilizer plant explosion, how do you think social media needs to be correctly monitored?

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 myspace.com

The New Myspace In All of Its Glory

On first signing in, I could see that the design hype wasn’t hype at all. The new Myspace team must have sat down and really pursued the goal of taking a social media site to the next level in graphic design and layout. It’s more akin to your average smartphone functionality than anything we’ve seen previously on a desktop.

The New Myspace design is nothing short of progressive, innovative and striking – I was very impressed. Once you’ve signed in, you are taken to your profile page. It doesn’t look like much, until you begin to ‘discover,’ ‘search,’ and ‘connect.’

When you get to the search page, an epic treat awaits you. All you have to do is type something into the massive search bar – and it will give you the songs, artists, albums, people and mixes that are available. You then click on your choice and are taken to a beautiful page with all of your favorite music on it.

In my opinion, Myspace has just taken over the music scene involved with the social internet. I’ve never personally used anything easier or more visually attractive than what the new Myspace has to offer. It’s now the ONLY way I will discover new music online.

Musicians, photographers, writers, artists, journalists, DJ’s and creative people everywhere – be prepared to be on Myspace a whole lot.

HIGHLIGHTS: The new horizontal scrolling desktop is not only inspired – it works!

Courtesy of myspace.com

The New Myspace Music Player and The Music

I honestly thought that there would be more to the new Myspace music and video player – but, it’s refreshingly simple and takes no time at all to buffer. The songs don’t play one after the other, unless you want them too – which is a nice feature.

As for the music, it’s great! On typing in one of my favorite songs, the new Myspace directed me to some mixes I had never heard before, and they were excellent. These mixes came from average Joes using the site, not average for long I bet. DJ’s and musicians are going to love how easy it is for new fans to discover their music.

The video jumps to full screen when you click play, and when you move your mouse again it scales down – very cool. There are no problems with the video player that I could see.

Important Features To Notice on The Flashy Myspace

The first thing I noticed on the new Myspace was the gigantic cover photo size – 1024×768, clearly an indication that the Myspace developers want you to make an aesthetic effort. All in all using the site is super-simple – too simple in fact. It has that immediate ‘addictive’ effect, and I spent a few hours on the site to verify this!

Pandora, Spotify and all the other music-based sites and players are in trouble. For social marketers, the new Myspace won’t only be a place to find great music, but a place to source excellent music images – to share on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

DOWN SIDE: Some of the songs on the site by professional artists don’t play the whole song, which is downright irritating. In 29 second snippets – the songs feed into each other. Then you have to go and find someone that has the whole song – usually a musician or DJ. Great for them, not so good for the original artists.

Courtesy of myspace.com

I’ve also noticed that when you’re searching through the site, occasional pop ups of where you have been (old pages) appear, which must be a bug. Of course the new Myspace will need some time to get those kinks worked out of it.

One other thing that I didn’t’ understand right away, was how to connect to other users. While the discover and search functionalities are highlighted, this part isn’t. Eventually, I realized that just clicking on someone’s picture was enough. Simple. Use search to find your friends. Astounding, but really, really basic.

The Future For The New Myspace

It’s true that this is life 3, for the new Myspace. It’s revamped everything and added in some seriously cool technology. I don’t think this time the site will die. If the new Myspace team can continue to innovate, then it has every chance of exceeding its 100 million user peak. I believe that it’s on the right path, but we’ll have to see.

For now, go and sign up! Enjoy the music and the new experience!

What do you think about the new Myspace? Will it survive today’s torrid evolving landscape?

Courtesy of imagineerz on Flickr.com

Resolution #1: Picture it on Pinterest

Why not start with 2012’s lead social media story? Many have been slow to take advantage of the sudden surge of popularity of the latest online sensation–but the research numbers are too dramatic to ignore.

In the past 12 months, Pinterest usage has grown by over 1000%, with the nearest competitor being Google Plus, at 80%. Make no mistake–Facebook is still the social media champ by a huge margin, but Pinterest’s marketing firepower is nothing to sneeze at. According to a recent study, fifty brands who did a Pinterest promotion found that it caused a 150% jump in followers.

Resolution #2: Don’t minimize mobile

According to NBC News, the number of Facebook users who began accessing the site through tablets and smartphones jumped 24% from June to September of 2012–and is now well over 30 million. The company also put out a statement pointing to their increasingly mobile future: “…we anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile usage will exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the foreseeable future and that the usage through personal computers may be flat or continue to decline in certain markets.”

Mobile social media marketing requires a different approach that respects consumers that are on the go and, at the same time, creates a positive engagement with them–so make sure you make that shift with your strategy.

Resolution #3: Transform customers into your sales force

It was once again recently confirmed that, when it comes to recommendations for products and services, people trust other people similar to them far more than any sophisticated marketing campaigns. For example, 92% of consumers listen to people they personally know, while 70% of them also trust online consumer reviews. After that, the numbers fall off sharply.

The moral of this story? The more “fans” you create, the more “likes” you motivate and the more “shares” you inspire, the more success you’ll continue to experience–as others in your customers’ circles observe what their friends and relatives buy and follow suit.

Resolution #4: Take it inside, not just outside

Many companies are creating their own internal social media networks to boost morale, share news, gain feedback and solicit ideas for improvement. For instance, Unisys CEO Ed Coleman created his own Facebook-style system for employees and management to increase efficiency and keep everyone up to speed.

The next generation of workers welcomes this kind of approach; they’re used to communicating online and want their workplace to encourage the practice.

Resolution #5: Don’t disregard any demographic

Many still make the mistake of considering social media usage strictly an under-30 activity. Yes, 92% of that age group is on Facebook, Twitter, and the like, but 57% of those 50 to 64 years of age and even 38% of those over 65 are also engaged on at least one social network. Should any marketer seriously consider ignoring that portion of a demographic?

To quote Mike Bal of the Chicago-based agency, Baseline21, “The biggest change we will see in the next year is that we are over the main hump on the adoption curve. At this point it’s not a specific demographic, it’s all of them from grandmas to elementary-aged children.”

Social media marketing continues to be a fascinating field to watch, as it expands and evolves at a rapid pace and in unexpected ways. Its fast-moving force provides plenty of potential payoffs.

Any social media predictions of your own that you’d like to share with the SMMU community?