BITB -- Social Media Marketing

So there’s this “thing” called “social media marketing” and everyone's talking about how flipping awesome it is. But making a blanket statement like “social media marketing” or how to use it is so broad, we need to level set on a few things.
Social media marketing is this umbrella term that refers to many types of media. Wikipedia states, “ Social media are media for social interaction , using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.”
This is a big point here. It’s the technologies to “turn communication into interactive dialogue”. That’s all social media is – the technology. The platform. The stuff that “makes it go”.
But what you wanna know is “how to make it go” for your clients. I’m here to teach you CPR. But CPR is not what you may think. There’s no “Resusci Annie” involved. There are real people. My version of CPR stands for
Content People Relevance - If you want to employ successful and impactful social media marketing campaigns, CPR is the key.
Creating good marketing content is not about you (or your client). It’s about the people who are going to consume the content. Speak to them. Speak to their needs/wants/likes & interests. - The best content answers a question, solves a problem or provides some sort of utility or entertainment. - People go to the web to find answers. I’ve heard that the number 1 top searched phrase in Google is “how to”. - Help people out by answering the “how to” with rich, crafty, meaningful or entertianing content and you’ll convert your target every time -- either in the near term or foster a long term relationship with them.
Case in point, if we look at Neilsen’s Top US Web Brands for March 2011, every single one of them is devoted -- to or focuses on CONTENT creation, delivery or repository -- AND three of the top 10 are specifically social media sites. - As an interesting side note, according to Facebook’s press office, **Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites are integrated with Facebook.
Like I said earlier – it’s not about you or your client. It’s not about what YOU’RE selling, promoting or advertizing – it’s about the PEOPLE you want to target. - To be a successful marketer of any kind, social or otherwise, you must know and understand everything you can about your target audience. - There is no more “mass media” or “mass marketing”. The beauty of social media is that it’s highly targetable and allows us to pinpoint precisely the people we wish to engage.
- Use whatever tools you have available to you to get to know your existing and target audiences, whether that’s Google Analytics, focus groups, emails, polls, research from Forrester, Nielsen or simply sitting down with a few and talking to them. - A great way to learn about what’s important to your existing customers and potential new ones, is a democratic voting forum (like UserVoice – the same thing that Starbucks does with MyStarbucksIdea.com). - To have a constructive dialogue with someone, you need to know and understand what’s important to them and address those hot buttons. - Ultimately, social media marketing is not about the technology or the platform – it’s about the people who use these tools and what their triggers are.
Case in point, we as human beings all want to be treated with respect. We want a voice. We want our opinions heard and addressed. Social media allows us to have literal one-on-one relationships with people. - Is it complex to do so? Yes. - Is it time consuming to do so? Yes. - Is it rewarding or impactful to create an army of advocates evangelizing on behalf of your brand? Take a look at this chart by Harris Interactive/Right Now and you tell me.
When it comes to social media marketing, relevance is king. We have the ability to target people very precisely based on their self-professed interests, their networks and their behaviors. There’s nothing more annoying than ads for products you could care less about, search results that don’t meet your query, or blatant spam or in-your-face tactics. - The awesome appeal of social media is that we can engage consumers in so many different ways than with traditional media. If you endeavor to answer questions/solve problems, entertain or give consumers the ability to share their knowledge, experience and opinions – they’ll help you out every time.
- Even though Facebook offers some fantastic targeting options and according to a Social Media Examiner survey, over 90% of marketers use Facebook as a marketing tool -- I’ve yet to see many marketers taking good advantage of the targeting options.
Here’s one of the first GOOD examples I’ve seen. I stated on my FB profile that I liked the book “The Alienist”, a turn of the century tale of crime, murder and the beginnings of the field of forensics in New York City circa the 1890’s. There’s nothing earth-shatteringly innovative about this campaign for “31 Bond Street” -- but I applaud the marketer for 1) speaking to me, 2) utilizing ad copy that speaks to why I liked The Alienist, 3) the ad sent me to the books wall, which is chock full of interesting and relevant content about the book, the time-period, historic maps of NYC, fashions of the day…etc. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!
I loved this ad so much, I posted about it on our company’s wall and I’ve told several friends and shared this page with my friends on FB. I’ve ordered the book, but have yet to start it – but you see -- this company already influenced me to influence others. I’m already down at the bottom of the sales funnel – acting as an advocate on behalf of the brand and I haven't even read the damned thing yet!! - WHY? Because the marketers who developed this campaign understand content. They understand people (and their motivations) and they understand relevancy.
Learn C.P.R. Create useful & engaging content Know your people Create relevancy to fosters advocacy

BITB -- Social Media Marketing

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BITB -- Social Media Marketing

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