SocialMedia_me

“10 Creative Secrets For Social Media Marketing” is an Infographic, so its creators hope you enjoy this one as much as you did with their previous infographic, “21 Rules For Effective Social Media Marketing“

View the complete infographic for ideas and tips on how to best leverage social media for marketing and business.

"... Successful online content providers no longer need to rely on ad spend. (There will be) fewer chances to reach consumers with ads."

That's what Darika Ahrens, a Forrester analyst, suggests: "Marketers should start acting like content creators to get their messages across, because actual media companies could give up on advertising funding as people start paying for their material."

"Thanks to technology developments, the outlook for content payments is positive. Of those providers who succeed at it, some will rely exclusively on user payments, and some, like The Financial Times, will seek to reduce advertising in their revenue mix as much as possible."

Worth paying attention. 7/10

Full article: http://paidcontent.org/2012/11/01/as-paid-content-booms-will-ad-opportunities-shrink/

This piece came to me from my fellow curator Jan Gordon. She is an EXCELLENT curator and if you follow her curation it will help your business a lot.

What I really like about this piece is its basic question -- are you sharing your biz stories for messaging or for engagement? These are two very different activities and will generate different results for your business.

Read Jan's excellent review below, read Brian Solis' article, and start shifting your storytelling so you can achieve better business results!

This wonderful piece was written by Brian Solis and as always, he captured the essence of what's needed to move your content to the next level, where your audience becomes an active participant. This is where relationships and communities are built, brand advocates, word of mouth and commerce follows if this is done right.

Here's what caught my attention:

Social Producers are the new storytellers

**To thrive in social, mobile and new media in general, we need much more than content producers, we need a new breed of designers that grasp the elements of online sharing and have mastered the ART of social media

**They know how to  trigger desirable (and social) actions, reactions and transactions

**A new genre of social producers are taking aim at developing content strategies that are not only consumable, they're shareable, actionable and act as catalysts or sparks for relevant conversations.

**These social producers are in fact masters of their domains and understand the culture and the laws of information commerce within each

The difference between Social Producers and traditional content creators is they begin with social outcomes

**they understand the relationship between cause and effect and they bake-in conversation starters related to an integrated and business-focused strategy

**Social producers think about the overall experience and the effect where a social object is at the center of the dialogue and interaction they envision....within each network

**The overall story and outcome defines the nature of the social object.

Takeaway

**Beyond shareability, the social producers also think about resonance. Conversations on social networks move quickly.

**What was trending an hour ago gives way to  the next social object that captures everyone's attention until that too is replaced by the next shiny object and so on.

**Resonance is a technique that allows a social object to enjoy a greater lifespan and continue to swim upstream while other content strategies wash away in real-time.

**As you think about your content strategy for social networks, do so from the perspective of a social producer.

**While the social effect is certainly a goal, the social effect is also the result of social design.

**In the end, people are going to talk, so give them something to talk about!

Curated by Jan Gordon covering, "Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/Qvxa6J]

Brands could be missing out on opportunities to engage with consumers on Twitter, and this is a compilation of best practices to leverage the social media platform for businesses.

The report, 'Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review', found that many brands aren’t always using Twitter effectively and outlines the top strategies for engaging with consumers. This data looks at user engagement for the top 320 brands on Twitter to see how successful they were at getting @replies and retweets. Their engagement rates were also assessed to quantify the relationship between @replies and retweets based on their number of followers.

Excerpted from article on GigaOM:

"Tech-savvy shoppers who look to their friends for purchasing inspiration, can already turn to platforms like Pinterest, Fancy, Fab and plenty of others. But with a Flipboard-like app for the iPad that aggregates social activity across shopping sites, New York-based Pickie believes it can get in on the social commerce action, too.

Pickie’s pitch was that consumers would want one destination that would filter through all of the social recommendations and highlight the most interesting and relevant items. In addition to showcasing the products at the center of social activity, Pickie layers in original content, as well as eventually more content from publishers, to give it an editorial identity.

“Long-term, the plan is to build out content and make it feel more like a magazine than a catalog,” said co-founder and CEO Sonia Sahney Nagar.

When users first sign in to the app, they indicate their gender and top categories of interest. Then, Pickie integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social sites to identify the products that are attracting the most attention from users’ friends. From that social data, the app generates a custom magazine of items, enhanced by relevant articles. For now, Sagar said, most of that additional content is produced in-house. But over time they plan to expand with more content from third-party publishers..."

Read full article here:

http://gigaom.com/2012/10/29/techstars-backed-pickie-raises-1m-for-flipboard-like-app-for-shopping/

Check out it and request an invite here: http://www.pickie.com