Social Marketing Revolution

Social Media Doubters Begone
Created an interesting spontaneous "campaign" for New Years. New Years day is my birthday. It is my father's birthday too. After a great suggestion from @Kelly HungerfordI set up a spontaneous event.

Every Happy Birth generated a $10 donation to Dr. John Byrd's work at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State where I'm being treated for the leukemia my father and I share.

After the event I created a report showing where my 72 Happy Birthdays came from:

33% Came from Social Media Friends (many made here on @Scoop.it).
24% came from work friends.

19% came from Greenwich (where I grew up during a special time)
12% came from Vassar where I graduated i 1980
11% came from Choate where I graduated in 1976

Still think social media doesn't matter? As I noted in the GPlus post, the ONLY thing that can scale in that list is Social Media. I may be able to incrementally increase my alumni networks, but only Social Media can quadruple.

The future is social. Get used to it and realize it changes everything.

Discover 4 surprising social media research findings about how consumer behavior on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram affect your social media strategy:

* We like Facebook for social login.
* Customer service via social nets grows especially on Twitter.
* Youngsters NOT unfriending Facebook.
* Instragam fastest growing site globally.

Marty Note
I'm not a big fan of Facebook marketing, but may need to rethink that at least on the social login and "trust mark" side of the equation. Not surprised to see customer service growing on Twitter (duh). Think what it will do when most companies understand that Twitter is NOT broadcast push platform but a pull conversation media.

Instagram growing fastest doesn't surprise. Visual marketing is growing and growing and growing with Instagram leading the charge. Surprised to see Pinterest so far down the list since they occupy much the same space, but Instragram is more mobile phone friendly.

Ello No Worries
Here is what I just posted on GPlus about Ello worrying about becoming the Walmart of social if they allow selling:

1. Setting up authorize.net gateways isn't easy.
2. Getting PCI compliance from banks and credit cards isn't easy.
3. NO ONE has shown how a social feed can be successfully monetized.

So to the team at Ello I would say imagine you are about to take a trip around the world. You are at the foot of your driveway and "becoming the Walmart of social" is a world away :). M

PS. If Ello allows selling what does that do to their "no ads" positioning?  

Maybe the first thing to worry about is scaling their social network to a point where it is beloved and used by us INSTEAD of Facebook or Twitter then worrying about becoming the Walmart of social may make some sense. 

In my mind this is another social net whose invitation only beta has all but killed it.  So worry less, do more is my advice. 

Tapestry Not Either Or
AND is the most important work in an Internet marketer's vocabulary as htis infogrpahic showing the profitability of different social tactics makes clear.