The Social Media Marketing Book

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One of the many principles — but a very essential one — for using social media is to ‘optimize your brand assets’.

What’s that mean? Good question.

It means using online social media sites to post content so people can find your content and, as a result, find you, too!

Here’s a great example of this:

Dan Zarrella, a noted expert on social media is the author of this extremely good book on social media.

But my point, for this post at least, is that he’s practicing the principle of getting ‘out there’ by posting his content (in this case, video on YouTube) so you can connect with him.

Get Dan’s book. It’s awesome.

More important, get the power of this practice . . . optimizing brand assets on the internet.

It’s good for your brand awareness and . . . your bank account.

ONE MORE EXAMPLE . . .

Here’s one of the ‘related videos’ you’ll be able to view after Dan’s video.

Notice that it’s not likely to be confused with a ‘Hollywood’ production in any way.  But it’s acceptable.  It’s also effective.

Question:
Can you see yourself doing something similar to this video or Dan’s?  Really!  And what would that do for you?  ‘-)

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Social Media . . . Brave New World?

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What’s happening with social media? How does it compare with traditional media?

Check out this insightful (and, brief!) video from Marcel Lebrun, CEO of Radian6 — a cutting edge social media company:

Social media is changing the very foundations on which business is conducted.

The way you communicate and interact is changing how you and your world interact. As a result, social media is arguably the biggest change in business communication since the introduction of mass media when ‘Mad Men’ become the leaders. Now, those leaders are you and me. How cool is that!

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RSS . . . What’s It All About?

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If you’ve never understood or used ‘RSS’ . . . WATCH THIS:

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Understanding Google Analytics

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Once you have your blog or website running, you DEFINITELY want to be running Google Analytics on it.

Why?

Couple of reasons . . .

  1. it’s FREE . . . so you can’t argue that!
  2. You gain INFORMATION . . . that helps you know what is / isn’t happening on your blog or website
  3. You can better MANAGE your blog . . . afterall, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, right?

OK, so you’ve installed Google Analytics. (you did do that, right?)
Now . . . you want to make sense of the all the data it’s giving you.

How?

Watch . . . this instructional video:

Enjoy!

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If You Build It . . . Will They Come?

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If you’re new to social media, you may feel like this poor soul . . .

“Marcus The Milkman” . . . a (mercifully brief) video by Daniel Hayek:

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Here’s the problem. Marcus has it all wrong. Well, sort of.

Social media — and social networks in particular — are grossly misunderstood and used improperly by many people in business.

When that happens, you can feel like good old Marcus here. And if that was as good as it gets, it would be a tragedy.

But, fact is, social network sites ARE productive for your business. BUT . . . you have to know how to use them effectively.

POINT:
Social Networks and social media are quite effective. So’s a B-1 Bomber. But, without a qualified pilot, it’s just a big, fat paperweight.

If you want your social networking to pay off for you and your business . . . join The Marketing Club™ . . . and learn how to earn with it!

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K.I.S.S. Is The (Best) Message!

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Do you communicate effectively?

How would you know? Probably by the response your reader or listener gives you after you give your message.

So, I ask again, “Do you communicate effectively?” If not, do better.

One key to that end which brilliant communicators like Seth Godin and Steve Jobs have honed to an artform is to be surgically concise.

Another key is to use visual information as much as possible. Afterall, who says, “Gee, I remember your name but I forgot your face!”.

We’re visual beings. We first process reality visually then we ‘process’ it into an abstract verbal understanding. So why make ‘getting’ a message harder than necessary?

Here’s a good example of a master presenter in action:

POINT:

Communication is an artform. Effective communication combines:

  1. the simplicity of your message with
  2. a visual rendering of it whenever possible


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Ancient Messages Are Still Relevant

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If you’re wondering why there is an ‘old’ school that’s been around long enough to be ‘old’ in the first place . . . check this out.

It’s a short video on the fundamentals of good marketing for anyone in the B2B marketplace.

After you hear the message, based on an ‘ancient’ advertisement that’s still as relevant today as it was ‘back in the day’ . . . think about how you’re using the modern social media of today to answer the questions this fellow is posing.

You’ll do more business when you do!

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Good-bye Old Friend . . . Say Hello To My Social Network!

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Alas, it’s time to say good-bye to an old friend . . . “Forward To A Friend” to be exact.

Sending outbound email you hope will go far depends on your first-level recipients having easy ways to ‘share’ your message.  Until recently, the favorite method to do this involved offering a ‘Forward To A Friend’ option in your email.  But that is changing.  Rapidly.  Likely forever.

As this chart shows, Facebook is THE most popular option to use in this regard followed closely by Twitter:

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While it’s not exactly, “Hasta la vista, baby!”.  It’s more like, “Move over . . . there’s a new option in town that’s taking over”  I’m talking about: SWYN or “Share With Your Network”.

An increasingly attractive way to promote your email is to offer not just FTAF (Forward To A Friend) but SWYN (Share WIth Your Network) as an option in your outbound email.

It makes sense.

With the same effort that it takes to send an email on to a friend (one person) you can use the increasingly common convention to post and share any email with your ‘social network’ via links from LinkedIn, facebook, Twitter, etc.

Read more

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Media IS The Message!

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When it comes to MEDIA . . . that carries a MESSAGE . . . to a target MARKET . . . this is an excellent example of what it’s all about:

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This is a company that makes hair waxing products for the uh, ‘hairy’ body parts that their customers would like to make less so.

This gentleman was hired to walk the beach in Vancouver, British Columbia and distribute free product samples, answer questions and have his picture taken with interested people.

Nice work . . . creative but aligned with the market it seeks to attract.  Good show, Parissa!

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Being Approach-able

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Scott Ginsberg has a calling. To be “That Nametag Guy”.

His mission is to help others be more approachable.  Why?  Because when you are, you are likely to be more successful.

Scott’s successful, too. Very, very successful!

What started out as a ‘happy accident’ — forgetting to remove his nametag after a meeting . . . has put him on a collision course with greatness.  The genius in his strategy was intentional, though.

If you’re seeking to understand the power of FOCUS . . . of dedication to a singular idea . . . check out Scott’s story below:

Lesson:

In a ‘me-too’ world, it pays to find a niche and . . . GO FOR IT!

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