Social Marketing Revolution

.Horowitz confirmed that Google plans to split off Hangouts and Photos as their own products separate from Google+. Horowitz will be in charge of Photos and "The Stream," which is what he called the social network part of G+ in his announcement.While Google Product

Marty Note
Excellent post by Mark that confirms G+ is changing but unlikely to be junked. As I heard Mark propose in a speaking engagement - use G+ as a powerful engine and you get views, conversations and a great free tool that works FOR your content not against it.

Social Media Snob Test
The purpose of social media is to connect, to BE SOCIAL. Better to NOT be on social media than to be on social and look like an arrogant snob. Not being on social can be forgiven. Being a snob in this day an age is difficult to forgie.

You Know Your Company Is A Social Media Snob If...

* You follow less than 50% of your Twitter followers.
- Following a tiny % of your followers is the ultimate snobbery because it limits communication (you can't DM unless you follow) and you can't REWARD unless you follow. 
- When an expert in your area with 10x the following as your company has (at the moment) follows you FOLLOW THEM BACK!!

* You company doesn't Retweet.
- When you Retweet you share someone's take. You are saying, "this is good enough to share" and that statement is a reward and and a way to "mentor" your space.

* Your company doesn't respond to @yourcompany notes.
- Not responding in a timely way to @yourcompany notes is an EPIC customer service fail.

* Your company isn't on GPlus.
- Time to come in for the big win AND Gplus is the most disruptive social net because of its proximity to high yield SEO (duy its GOOGLE) and most business verticals are nascent on GPlus because there is a learning curve.

* Your company isn't having conversations.
- If you are still using social media to push messages without listening and responding you look either clueless or a snob (and neither of those are good).

* Your Company isn't on Instagram or Pinterest.
- Marketing communication is becoming highly visual so to not be on either Instragram or Pinterest is snobby since it feels like insisting we continue to do things the old "talk about ourselves to ourselves" way. 

* Your company isn't creating video.
- Video is highly widget-ized and so easy to share content. Video is also a more universal language. I may not speak english but video, done right, can be a cross cultural tool.  

* Your company[s SMM is highly scripted.
- Days of scripting every interaction with customers is long gone.  

Don't be a social media snob either by intention or ignorance because being a SNOB on social media is the wrong signal to send...always.  

Social Media Marketing Tools
Team Curagami thought it would be interesting to look across the tools we love to use to see who is helping and how much:

Total Views
GPlus: 1.92M
Scoop.it Views: 173,000
Haiku Views: 83,464
Twitter: ?

Use Time

Twitter: 6 Years

Scoop.it Use: 3 Years
GPlus: 2 Years
Haiku Deck Use: 1 Year

Content Created
Scoops: 6,716
Tweets: 17,300
Haiku Decks: 38
Google Plus: 2,000 (estimate)

Following

Scoop.it: 34,000
Twitter: 5,355
GPlus: 4,397

Haiku Deck: Doesn't Offer Yet (have talked to them about this)

Caveat
If your Apples to Oranges warning light is on we agree. There are so many variables with one of the variables being how each of these tools helps the others so comparison is somewhat moot.

That said here are some random thoughts about each social media / content marketing tool:

Twitter = Frustration
Twitter is always 3 steps forward and 2 back. Each day @Scenttrail (http://www.twitter.com/scenttrail) and @Curagaqmi (http://www.twitter.com/curagami )gain and lose followers. Engagement is limited in this kind of "fire hose" marketing and for every 3 followers 2 drop off (I trim with JustUnfollow) despite my generally trying to follow everyone even remotely related who has followed me or us.

When we see Ashton Kutcher has millions of followers and treats what we work at so HARD as a big joke it's frustrating and maddening. I don't think any team can DO WITHOUT the "radio of the web", but its hard to grow a tribe there. Best to use Twitter for what it is good at - informing your tribe about what is happening now.

Scoop.it = Following & Future of Content Marketing
Scoop.it's ability to form a tribe is outstanding. The stumble comes when we try to figure out how to communicate with, listen to or curate from our followers. We think our Scoop.it "Magazine" Page: @Martin (Marty) Smith should be MORE IMPORTANT.

Scoop.it has 1M users now. We would love to see more Hero Marketing similar to what Haiku Deck does so well. Where is the Top Scoop.it Curators list? Where are the stats showing the Top Scoops of 2014 on a variety of dimensions (share, links, views)?

Scoop.it is sitting in the catbird seat since content curation is about to be the big win, but we would love a more proactive stance from Team Scoop.it. That said, they've been KIND and GENEROUS adopting me despite tough financial times due to cancer treatments. Like Haiku Deck Scoop.it has a great team and they will figure it out.

Goole Plus
We LOVE Google Plus, but losing the charismatic leader Vic Gundotra was a shock. I love hangouts, but they are not enterprise ready full of creaks, pops and cracks when used. Not easy either. GPlus has a LEARNING CURVE.

On the positive side IT'S GOOGLE. I don't know anywhere else where a following of less than 5,000 can generate page views close to 2M. Content on Google gets seen, commented on and that's worth our investment and continued learning.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MartinWSmith/posts 

Haiku Deck
For team Curagami the real revelation is Haiku Deck. We get MORE for LESS with Haiku Deck than any other social media tool (period, full stop). The fact that our decks, even the old sleepy ones, continue to generate new views is amazing.

Haiku Deck's adoption of our favorite online community / Hero Marketing idea is why our 38 decks are slouching toward 100,00 views after only a year and much less ditch digging than our first two years on Scoop.it. We created a Haiku Deck about their creation of online community:

Haiku Deck Model
http://shar.es/1H5cUm

Yes, Haiku Deck is being helped by the entire ecosystem especially Scoop.it, but if you have ONE thing you can do create decks and pray.

Because no one can do ONE THING anymore (sadly). What about you? What are your favorite social media tools and why?