Social Marketing Revolution

Adding Feeds To your Blog / Site
I wrote a Curagami post recently about how the future of ecommerce is a symphony of feeds. (http://www.curagami.com/ecommerce-future-a-symphony-of-feeds/?v=7516fd43adaa ). One tool, our beloved @Scoop.it, is leading the way in making it easy to curate with your left hand and add valuable content with your right. 

This post shares the 5 easy steps to add Scoop.it feeds to your blog or website.  

Content, when used right, is an incredible sales tool. It can also dramatically shorten the sales cycle. Here’s how…

In Part 2 of his social media marketing safety tips, Marty Smith shares how organisations can act to help prevent themselves being hit by a crisis on the internet.

You may catch Marty combing through Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair at B&N. Why? Fashion mags are great visual marketers - 8 Visual Marketing Tips From Vogue:

• Be specific & BIG NUMBERS are great ways to be specific.
• Be branded – take advantage of existing brands such as Shades of Grey.
• Be topical – March is “fashion week” in NYC and both magazines have extensive features.
• Be welcoming – note how both models look directly out at the viewers (my favorite online engagement pose).
• Use SOUND – “Sexy, Shiny, Bouncy Hair sounds fun. “Full on Fashion Force” sounds forceful. Words create rhythm and sounds that adds to or detracts from compelling images.
• Juxtapose – “street chic” and “fashion force” are examples of creative juxtapositions.
• Use Action Verbs – which of these action verbs AREN’T on either cover? grab, be bold, upgrade, must have, takes on, and rock? Yep, all of those “action verbs” are in sub-headlines.
• Simple Colors – ONLY colors used for headlines and sub-heads are black, white and red.

Mark Kelley, co-founder and CEO at Taggs (www.taggs.co), a visual content marketing software provider, headed a study on how different types of pictures affect the way Facebook users respond to certain brand marketing posts.

GooglePlus Rocks
+B.L. Ochman (@whatsnext) and +David F Leopold (@SmallBizDavid) created a great HangOut about +Google+ today. Several of B. L.'s statements struck me as beyond important including:

GooglePlus is NOT a social net but a revolution in online communication.

and

There has never been a TOOL like it.

This is a great Hangout with a very smart lady. At one point in the final third they discuss how GPlus is a major opportunity for fashion websites. I've done extensive research that supports that idea.

If you keep in mind the idea that GPlus is a tool not a social net it may be the most disruptive thing you can do within your business vertical no matter what it is (I have extensive research to back that up too).

Why kill yourself to catch up to someone who is just waiting for you machinegun in place on Facebook or Twitter when, in almost every case I've studied GPlus is a blue ocean of opportunity?

How did teams I've managed make over $30M online? It wasn't by doing what everyone else was doing exactly as they wre doing it I assure you :). Marty

In terms of granular targeting of your messaging, few platforms are more effective than Twitter. Using its various advertising tools, you can boost your posts to place them in front of your targeted demographics, create a trending hashtag, or even target users who are watching a particular piece of live television programming.

How Do You Create 'Heroic Content'?
You create heroic content by knowing that is what you are trying to do. You create heroic content by RISKING things (reputation, your brand, your ideas). You create heroic content by rejecting the lemmings rush toward the next Internet marketing tactic and embracing them all IN SERVICE to some greater idea.

What's your company, brand or website's movement, manifesto and who is in your tribe? Immediately after you create heroic content that gets you in the game (your About page for example), then begin asking for help. Don't wait or hesitate.

It will be slow going at first, but hang in there and keep asking. One thing we've learned the hard way is people want to help especially those willing to risk all, to share the "inside baseball" content only they know and people who want to help first and are worried about returns a distant third.

One way you create heroic content is to be a hero and beginning is easier than you think AND much easier than mastering one more soon to be diminishing return tactic. Helping create Heroic Content is our Startup Factory funded startup's mission (http://www.curagami.com). Hope you will join us, help us, criticize us and care.

We are all in. The boats have been burned and we want to make Curagami HELPFUL and WISE beyond its years. Hope you will help.
http://www.curagami.com/featured/social-media-marketing-dead-yes/

& we built on that post on LinkedIn
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/ffq4jhbRZbv

SMM Lessons From The Pit & The Food Bank
Poking fun at my @CrowdFunde cofounder Phil Buckley today I wrote a new caption for The Pit's Cuegrass photo. I noted that either Phil was holding court or Cuegrass was coming soon.

My "inside" joke with my partner Phil, former "Mayor" of The Pit BBQ in Raleigh, NC, IS THE MOST DISCUSSED CONTENT on my social nets today. Let that statement sink in for a minute.

What do you call it when someone blows up your Tweet? Answer: Social Media GOLD.

My "inner circle" social nets have about 12,000 followers. I share content from Scoop.it (daily shares with 2,300 followers @Martin (Marty) Smith ), G+ (2,896 followers share daily https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MartinWSmith/posts ),Twitter (@Scenttrail 4,200 followers share daily http://www.twitter.com/scenttrail ) and  Pinterest (4,929 followers post daily http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/ ) and the most shared post today is an "inside" joke with a handful of friends.

A handful of friends and some SMART social media marketers shared some great social media marketing lessons today!

The Pit, our favorite BBQ joint in downtown Raleigh immediately RTed my new caption of their photo with a supportive tag ("now that's a caption"). The Pit's RT prompted several Cuegrass, the event I wrote the new caption for, vendors to RT too.

This is the POWER of the recognized conversation.

The Pit could have been MAD I wrote a new caption for their Cuegrass event pic. Nope, too smart for that they provided encouragement and RTed demonstrating what Phil and I are working so hard to create at CrowdFunde - conversations RULE.

AND the more responsive, lean, funny and fun your social content is the more shares you achieve. The more shares you achieve the more awareness you gain. When I opened a new chapter on Cuegrass the Pit jumped on it. Now I see Phil got home and joined the conversation. Phil's nets are the size of mine so the Pit just picked up 20,000 potential followers or attendees at this year's Cuegrass (I still don't even know what it is lol). 

So, not only is the Pit the home of our favorite BBQ and Cuegrass, but today they've put their secret rub down long enough to share two important social marketing lessons:

* When someone is talking about YOU ENCOURAGE THEM.
* Encourage them IN Social Media so the "lesson' is immediately shared and "social kudos" points transfer. 

Duh, who knew. Actually LISTENING and being SOCIAL are important to social media marketing success. The Pit knew, several of their vendors know and the Food Bank knows (https://twitter.com/FoodBankCENC ). In Fact my "cool follow of the day" award goes to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina since they FOLLOWED ME!

Not giving them the award for following me as much as seeing a great conversation and jumping in with both feet. Every Twitter following that is only a tiny % of those following them could take a lesson from the Food Bank. You can't create relationships with people you don't follow.

And, as the Food Bank demonstrated, when you see a great conversation happening jump in, SHARE and FOLLOW. What do you call it when someone writes a new caption for your photo? Answer: User Generated Content GOLD and I hope you are as smart about what to do with SMM gold as the tribe that formed around my "inside joke" on The Pit's Cuegrass photo today.

And whatever Cuegrass is and whenever it is happening I hope it is as fun as the picture :). Marty

Marty Note
This is a great post from Alley Greer Scoop.it's Community Manager on the eve of her 2 year anniversary. Since are are all "Community Managers" now whether we know it or not Alley's post is a #mustread.

Alley's Tips:

1. When In doubt, ASK & Check In. 

2. We're All Humans (translated Alley is saying breakdown the barriers between YOU and THEM).

3. Be Transparent.

Alley shared a great stat. Once she adopted transparency via asking instead of assuming and checking in she was able to double the size of the community she manages (Scoopiteers). 

Asking and checking in creates community. When you begin to remove barriers between you and your customers good things happen just ask Alley :). M  

Truth In Advertising
Social media needs an interpreter. I've never read a more true statement than, "fans and followers have not value as a stand alone number". That statement is correct in particular and in general.

Web metrics are best used as part of a modeled system of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs should inform actions. If you are monitoring something and NOT changing your Internet marketing based on what it says (in some way and don't forget numbers that make up your ecosystem and so inform action) then stop measuring it.

The distance between your KPIs and action should be short. The time it takes to take action can be long, depending on the KPI, but creating informed action is why you measure and this post explains HOW to measure social media.

No article can tell you exactly how to measure SMM for your business since how you segment and group is usually highly individual, but this post can help you get started. Metrics are magical and can keep the financial gatekeeper bears at the door, but only measure what has meaning and create that meaning from your modeled ecosystem.