Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
When I devoted an entire chapter in my book, Marketing 2.0, to developing a social media marketing strategy, my intent was to inspire marketers. In other words, I want marketers to avoid making the most common mistake, which is the mindset that you need a Twitter or Facebook strategy. You don’t. You need a social media marketing strategy!

Consider assembling the marketing team and your CEO and asking these questions:
•    Why do we think we need a social media strategy?
•    What is our objective?
•    What will the costs be?
•    What are the staffing requirements?
•    What are the risks?
•    What are the opportunities?
•    What are our competitors doing in social media?

Old School Meets New School
While Marketing 2.0 is a new-school marketing paradigm, there is no substitute for old-school research to gain valuable insights before you develop your social media strategy. Begin with research about your customers, target customers, competitors, resellers and influencers. Take no less than a few days (at a minimum) to study the landscape in your industry. Conduct searches in Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the names of the CEOs of any company in your industry that is relevant. Include your competitors, your suppliers, and any other relevant company, including analysts and publications. This research should provide valuable insight into where your customers and relevant community are spending time on the social web. You’ll learn what they’re talking about and what groups exist by topic or by company. You’ll learn what your competition is doing or not doing. Eventually, you will gain valuable insight that will drive your social media strategy.

Why Do We Think We Need a Social Media Strategy?
This question is somewhat akin to asking, what business are we in? When you consider why you need a social media strategy, you should take some time and revisit this question about your core business.  A social media strategy serves one simple purpose; it enables your company to engage in authentic conversations with your community so you can improve your ability to attract, retain and serve your customers.

So Begin Your Social Media Strategy by Listening!
On one hand, it’s obvious why we should be listening. It’s the same reason we should be reading industry news—to stay informed. But remember that News 1.0 came at you from only one direction. The people whose job it was to deliver the news wrote it, and you read it. That’s where it ended. In News 2.0, we are empowered to participate in the story. When you listen to the comments made by people who react to a news story, you are listening to your market in real time.

If your top competitors are actively producing content in social media, your risk may be greater if you choose not to. Your absence from online conversations may damage your brand. In short, competitive pressures may influence your decision to become a content producer.

What is Our Objective?
You’ve done your research, and you’ve identified why you need a social media strategy. Now, it’s time to clearly define your objectives. Your objectives should fall into one of these categories:
•    Competitive differentiation
•    Market share growth
•    Expansion of your brand

Competitive Differentiation
A competitive differentiation strategy requires you to increase your visibility on the social web in your market segment through online content commenting and new content creation. Identify the best sources of web-based content in your industry, including vertical industry media and associations. Task a member of your staff to monitor the content and the conversations in these online communities. Identify the subject matter experts in your organization who can get engaged in the conversations in these online communities or contribute new content. Consider a blog strategy if you have the staff to devote to it. Find a voice for your organization that can become a consistent voice in your market, delivering a consistent message on specific topics. Allow this voice to be active and free with ideas and valuable insights into the things about which the people in your industry care. Remember, this is not a direct sales strategy, though your management team may view it this way. Your differentiation goal is to allow the market to see how you think, how you serve, how you listen, how you respond, and generally how you add value to your market. Talking about your products in ways that interest your community is advisable. Shouting to them about features is not. Your goal is to make it easy for others to learn how your organization is different from your competitors.

Market Share Growth
In setting out to grow your market share, you must be committed to proper staffing and producing diversified content on the social web. You must do proper planning and be willing to experiment, even if it means taking risk and failing some along the way. The objective is to attract more of your community to your organization. To do this, you need a bigger footprint on the web. If your differentiation strategy was primarily based on a blog, you may need to expand your strategy. You might commit to producing videos. Groups are available in social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook and can offer very easy ways to expand your reach. Similarly, you may find groups in industry-specific social sites where your staff can participate. This requires commitment, which carries with it some staffing implications. But this can be accomplished by adjusting your staffing requirements, cutting nonperforming marketing activities and reallocating staff resources to producing more social media content.

Brand Expansion
To expand your brand using social media requires a big commitment and carries some risk. The content strategy is the key to success in brand expansion! You’ll need to decide which social media platforms to use, who will create the content, and who will be the public face of your content. Presumably you’ve done your homework to find the audience you want to reach, and you’re committed to producing the content that will reach them. You’ll need to experiment to find the right mix of content and platforms to reach your desired audience. You may find that some content is more effective than others in expanding your brand. You’ll need to take some risk and measure results along the way to determine the effectiveness of expanding your brand through social media.

Let Your Content Go
The reality is that most businesses have more content than we know what to do with. We have white papers, news releases, websites, newsletters, and countless internal documents, not to mention the brilliant but often undeveloped content residing in between our ears. The power of social media marketing lies in letting it all go. Share your content with the world. So if you have good content for your community, share it, promote it, but most of all, just let it go.

Ready, Aim, Fire
Do your homework. Set your goals. Set your content strategy. Assemble the team. Cut non-performing activities to make room for a social media strategy. Then, get started. You’ll make some mistakes. But, with good planning you’ll make fewer and less costly mistakes and you’ll accelerate your results.

I’ll write a blog post soon about how to measure social media marketing results…

Epic Change, Cause Marketing on the Social Web

Interview with Stacey Monk. Founder, CEO of Epic Change.

If you’re not familiar with this story, get ready for some goose bumps. In addition to warming your heart, this story is a great example of cause marketing with many valuable lessons for marketers.

Epic Change is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization founded by Stacey Monk and Sanjay Patel. They help social entrepreneurs who are change makers share their stories to get funded for a charitable cause. Their current project is partnered with (change maker) Mama Lucy in Tanzania to build school classrooms in the Arusha district of Tanzania, Africa. First, a little background on Stacey Monk (herself an impressive change maker).

A Life Changing  Trip

Stacey always had the inspiration to work in the non profit sector. After graduating from college, she needed to repay student loans so she joined the workforce as a management consultant working in change management. She consulted for businesses and public sector clients on this discipline.  In 2007 Stacy took a life changing trip to Africa where she volunteered at Mama Lucy’s Shepherd’s Junior school. When Stacey returned to her consulting practice, she learned that the landlord sold the land that Mama Lucy’s school was on. That motivated Stacey to act on her life long dream of working in the non profit sector. She and Sanjay founded Epic Change and took on Mama Lucy’s school as their first project.

Using the Social Web to Raise Funds

Epic Change adopted social media out of the gate as a way to reach people for donations through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. They had a zero dollar budget. Stacey started using Twitter without any idea why. She connected with interesting people around the world which couldn’t have otherwise happened. One of those people is Sam Lawrence who has a popular blog called Go Big Always.  One day Sam said he didn’t feel like writing a blog post. Stacey volunteered to write it for him. She knew that Sam has a large following.  So, Stacey wrote a guest blog post about how she is going big to build classrooms in Tanzania through her non profit Epic Change. Sam shared that blog post on Twitter and it wound up reaching hundreds of new followers. It quickly struck Stacey how she could reach many influential people through Twitter and blogging.

That experience was a huge light bulb. Stacey figured out the power of the social web by connecting with influential people who can spread the word. Stacey’s connection to Sam Lawrence was game changing. His network turned out to be a huge door opener for Epic Change even though Stacey didn’t have a personal connection with Sam. Many new donors and new relationships came from that one connection with Sam Lawrence.

TweetsGiving 2008

Stacey started spending more time on Twitter as a result of her “going big” blog post and her new found connections on Twitter. This inspired Stacey to create a fund raising event called Tweetsgiving. Avi Kaplan, a new friend she met on Twitter, wrote a touching blog post thanking her for mentor-ship and passion for giving.  She was moved by his gratitude. So, Stacey invited the Twitter community to participate to show their gratitude. She asked influential bloggers like Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan to invite people to give thanks for whatever they were grateful for and invited them to donate to TweetsGiving. The TweetsGiving event took place over just two days preceding Thanksgiving 2008. The goal was to raise $10,000. Over $11,000 was raised in just two days! TweetsGiving alone enabled Epic Change to build a classroom for Mama Lucy’s school in Tanzania.

TweetsGiving Success Factors

Why was TweetsGiving so successful? One reason is clearly stating the financial goal of $10,000 and stating what the money would be used for (to build a classroom). The call to action was to donate $10 for one brick. All the donators are listed on the wall of gratitude in the school.  The wall of gratitude was painted by local artists.  It reads: “This classroom was built from gratitude…Thank you!” All the donors are listed by their Twitter handle as shown in the picture below (that’s my Twitter name in the callout).  The entire classroom is enveloped by the wall of gratitude.

Five classrooms have been built as of this writing. And over $75,000 has been invested to secure land, a school bus, install flushable toilets and implement solar power. Over 300 children are now attending the Shepherd’s Junior school under Mama Lucy, which is triple the size since the beginning of the project! Equally important, this model is now proven which allows it to scale. Mama Lucy has also been certified now in national exams. Her school recently scored #1 out of 117 schools in their district in Arusha, Tanzania!

Building a Technology Lab is Next

An online vote has been mobilized to build a technology lab. Twitter people got involved in the voting along with the local people in Tanzania by going to internet cafes in town to cast their vote to get the funds for the technology lab. For many of them it was their first experience using the internet and they got to use it to vote to get more resources for their local community. On Stacey’s next trip they will teach people how to use the internet. The local people in Tanzania will also get to participate in TweetsGiving 2009.

TweetsGiving 2009

I asked Stacey about plans for TweetsGiving 2009. She was not ready to announce the financial goal when I conducted this interview. But, I’m sure we’ll learn about it very soon. She assured me the goal will be bigger than the 2008 goal. And, I have no doubt it will be exceeded once again.

Experiment that Paid Off

Stacey Monk’s story has so many inspirational lessons for us as humans and as vocational marketers. The main lesson I want to emphasize for marketers is to be willing to experiment. When Stacey launched TweetsGiving 2008 she didn’t know what to expect and she wound up exceeding her goal. She reached out and engaged influential people who helped her exponentially reach many more people. Stacey also produced content every step of the way. Her most successful content was user generated content, especially content that is produced in Tanzania in the way of photos and video.

Inspiration to Others

Many others have been inspired by Epic Change including me. I wrote a story about Epic Change in my book, Marketing 2.0.  Shel Israel has also covered Epic Change in his book, Twitterviille. Stacey was invited to speak at South by Southwest Conference where she learned that others have been inspired by her as a result of TweetsGiving. Many are frequently reaching out to Stacey for advice on raising funds on the social web for a charitable cause.

Stacey’s Advice to Marketers

Stacey is very grateful for the attention she has received, not for self serving reasons, but rather for the positive impact it’s having on Epic Change. Stacey advises marketers to consider partnering with charitable causes to make a difference. Along the way, you can reach influential people who align with the charitable cause. When for-profit businesses adopt a cause marketing mindset there are several winners. One of them can be the marketer. But, the biggest winner is the cause.

Thanks for advice Stacey!  I can’t wait to hear about TweetsGiving 2009.

Dear Twitter, I Want to Pay for my Account

Paying for Twitter is in the Best Interest of the Twitter Community

When Twitter suspended my account this week (while on vacation) I was shocked. At first, I didn’t believe it. I almost denied it. But, it slowly sank in that I was without the ability to post (tweet) comments and links to articles, or reply to other’s tweets.

I didn’t realize how dependent I had become on Twitter until my account was suspended. So, I turned to Facebook to ask people who follow me on Twitter to tweet about my suspension. After all, it must be a mistake. I’m not a spammer. And, I certainly didn’t violate their TOS. My hope (fantasy) was that if enough people tweeted about @berniebay being unfairly suspended, that somehow Twitter would notice and reinstate me.

Once I calmed down I learned through a blog article on Mashable that Twitter admitted to a human error that apparently suspended numerous accounts and they were working to restore them. Yes, that gave me some comfort. At least I know I didn’t inadvertently committed some Twitter sin that warranted my suspension.

But, then the light bulb went on. I am so frustrated that I can’t use Twitter that I would be willing to pay for it!

One of my Twitter friends, Peter Rad made the comment on Facebook: “remember that Twitter is free and you have no right to complain when it fails you.” Peter you are correct! Peter also is of the opinion that if or when Twitter starts to charge a fee the uproar will be so loud it will be deafening. I think it depends on their pricing model.

So, here is my proposed pricing model for Twitter usage.

Individuals:

The first 500 users are free. This allows the casual newbies to try it out with no barrier to entry. After 500 followers the monthly fees start. The thresholds I propose are:

501 to 2000
2001 to 3000
3001 to 4000
4001 to 5000
5,001 to 7,500
7,501 to 10,000
10,001 to 15,000
15,001 to 25,000
25,001 to 50,000
50,001 to 100,000
100,000 plus

The monthly fee at each threshold obviously would increase, but until the threshold gets to 50,000 it should not exceed $50 per month. One mathematical approach is a penny per follower with the first 500 free. At 2,000 followers that’s $20 per month. Perhaps above 50,000 followers the per follower fee would drop below a penny to keep the cost reasonable for the Twitter superstars. I also propose a cap so even a Twitter mega superstar would never pay more than a ceiling price.

I like this pricing model for two reasons. First, it provides some revenue to Twitter so support tickets can actually get a response. Second, it provides some accountability. Now, they have no accountability because their service is free. And, third it will dissuade some of the rif raf from spamming us with offers to “grow our Twitter following and make a zillion dollars.”

Brands

Twitter should charge all brands a one time $99 fee. That’s a reasonable amount that any serious brand can afford. A similar fee schedule should apply to brands as the one described above.

Whether or not my model is the right pricing model for Twitter is not my point. No business on the planet can survive without revenue. It’s long overdue. As a Twitter “customer” I have no recourse for my undeserved suspension because I’m not a paying customer.

Dear Twitter – I want to become a paying customer. It’s time!

Would you pay for your Twitter account? How much is it worth to you?

@berniebay

Marketing 2.0 Presented at Chamber Event

I was invited to speak at the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, which is the largest chamber in the Tampa Bay region where I live. The event was well attended with close to 100 people representing mostly small and midsized businesses and non-profits.

I tested out my new slides which summarize my forthcoming book entitled Marketing 2.0. Judging by the questions, comments and the active note taking in the audience, I’d say my presentation was well received.

I spoke on how the old way of marketing (1.0) comprised of shouting at customers is dead. I referenced this video comically showing the divorce between advertiser and consumer.  I pointed out that buyers have filters that allow us to prevent old-style marketing from reaching us.

I highlighted how marketers must focus on two fundamental pillars in a marketing 2.0 strategy:

• producing great content
• building relationships on the social web

I discussed the types of content to produce ranging from websites, blogs, newsletters, e-books, white papers, articles, press releases, videos, photos. I didn’t mention (but should have) wikis and podcasts.

I stressed the importance of engaging with like minded communities to build relationships with people and to build trust.

I spoke of how buyers now buy differently. I explained that when I buy I turn to two places: 1) my friends (my network) and 2) the web. When researching on the web I ask for opinions from other people whom I’ve never met. But, I can read the profile and experience of people who make recommendations to determine their qualifications (trustworthiness) for recommendations.

I can also make valuable connections, some of which can turn into measurable results. I spoke of how to measure results using tools and Internet marketing software as well as also measuring the outcome of new relationships.

I was not surprised to learn that most people in the audience used LinkedIn. About half the audience used Facebook. But, only three people actively use Twitter and only a few more maintained active blogs.

I got the strong impression that most of the attendees were fairly new to social media marketing. Some indicated they previously had very little exposure to it.

I didn’t hear any major objections to a marketing 2.0, social media marketing strategy, which I characterized as a paradigm shift.

Rather, I believe I heard a willingness to experiment and explore the business benefits of producing and sharing content on the social web and building relationships which can produce positive benefits to their business.

You can view my entire Marketing 2.0 presentation on Slideshare.

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Web 3.0 Getting Closer with Google Friend Connect

I’ve been blogging about and speaking about the evolution of search engine optimization for some time now. I’ve blogged that SEO should become SO. I recently blogged that SEO is getting harder in 2009.

Let’s face it the web is getting more and more social. Popular services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace (among others) are growing in popularity among mainstream users. The social features of these services are now easily added to your website or blog using Google Friend Connect.

Google released Friend Connect in early December 2008 in Beta.  It’s a free product that allows a webmaster to add social networking features to a website or blog just by copying a snippet of code.

The idea is you invite people to sign into your website using their existing ID from Google, Yahoo, AOL or OpenID.  Users can create a new profile or use an existing profile. This begins to deliver on a promise of Web 3.0 that will allow your profile to be portable among websites.

Users can post comments and engage in discussions on topics relevant to your site. Currently a wall gadget allows users to post comments and another gadget allows users to leave a rating on a page. Soon other gadgets from Google and the OpenSocial developer community will be available allowing your website to become an interactive destination. Users can invite other users from other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to get engaged in discussions on your website! If that doesn’t excite you, check your pulse!

The fact this tool is available from Google helps to accelerate the mainstream adoption of social attributes on websites especially since it doesn’t require an entire new website redesign effort.

Marketers who have been slow to adapt to the social web better look over their shoulder. When you see a competitor offering its visitors the ability for community engagement through Google Friend Connect, you just may be playing catch up.

Marketers should be actively considering how they can offer their users a destination. The technology is available and it’s free. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is breaking through the paradigm thinking that you are in control of your website.  The web has gone social whether you like it or not.  Website visitors want to engage with you and with others. Give them a reason to engage. Build your community or risk losing them.

If this economy is forcing you to rethink some of your strategies you now have something else to think about. But, don’t wait too long or you just may be playing catch-up.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Delivering SEO Services Just Got Harder

The SEO discussions are heating up. It’s early in 2009 and already everyone is talking about the changes we’re seeing in SEO. Some say it’s getting easier and some say it’s getting harder. Tomato or tomahto?

If you’re a large company with deep resources, SEO is getting easier because you have the resources to produce keyword rich content and user generated content on the social web.  You have the resources to study the changes and react to them favorably.

But, if you’re a small or mid size company SEO just got harder. It’s already challenging for smaller companies to write a lot of content and to produce rich media content such as video, photos and user generated content in social media.

Now that Google has personalized search results through SearchWiki studying your rankings is not as relevant as it was in the past. Producing incoming links is now harder because Google is favoring editorial links coming from user generated content which is found in social media sites like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other Web 2.0 destinations.

So how does a business with limited resources win with SEO in 2009? Before I answer that, let’s examine why it’s important.  In July 2008 almost 12 billion searches were conducted in the U.S. according to Comscore. The sources of these searches were not limited to Google, Yahoo and MSN. They include searches on sites such as eBay, AOL, Ask, Craig’s List, MySpace, Facebook and Amazon.

Google continues to dominate search results with 61% of all searches. Google returns a variety of search results including blogs, Wikis, PDFs, social networking comments, video, photos and just about any frequently updated content on the web.

SEO services firms committed to winning for their clients provide free education through blogs, podcasts, newsletters, white papers and webcasts.

Small and medium size businesses should devote resources to getting educated through industry portals such as Sphinn and Junta42 as well as SEO services agencies who offer free education.

While the education process never ends, following SEO best practices will yield good results.  Follow these SEO best practices:

• quality content
• extensive keyword research
• natural editorial link building through social media
• clean website architecture with human readable URLs
• quality meta data
• internal editorial linking on important keywords
• avoid SEO sales pitches that promise quick results

Delivering SEO services is not easy due to the number of variables that drive successful results. Businesses willing to commit to the hard work it takes and following best practices will enjoy quality traffic that can deliver sales results. And, that’s what makes SEO worth the effort.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Social Media Promiscuity: Good or Bad?

When you hear the word promiscuity, what image does that conjure up for you? Don’t worry, this blog isn’t going there…I’m inspired to write about the concept of social media promiscuity because my brain works best with metaphoric references.

Anyone who is actively involved in social media knows that it’s all about what you give to your online community. You can give ideas, thoughts, tips, opinions and of course you can give links to content.

The best of the best in social media do a great job of sharing good content with their community. Links to news, events, interesting articles as well as new survey results, trends and anything the giver feels is interesting to their community.

Many who are active in social media often share their own content with their community. People often share links to their blog posts, podcasts, videos, samples of their work, etc. People also encourage their friends to share those links of their content with their friends on the web.

Essentially, we are promoting our own content on the social web, hence my metaphor of social media promiscuity. I’ve also heard the half-joking reference to “pimping content.”

How do you feel about that?

One attribute of the social web is we are free to follow whomever we want. And, we are free to “unfollow” anyone we want. In the vast majority of the cases when people I follow through Twitter or Facebook send me links to their own content I’m way okay with that. The primary reason I’m okay with is because I follow interesting people. Their content is usually pretty interesting and relevant to me.

The social web is “social.” If being social on the web is sometimes a little promiscuous with content, I’m okay with that as long as the promiscuity isn’t offensive. If I receive content that either isn’t interesting or from someone that I don’t find interesting I have two choices. I can not consume their content, and/or I can choose to no longer follow this person.

The essence of social media marketing is to share good content with your community. If the content you share with me is someone else’s or yours, that doesn’t matter as long as it’s interesting to me.

So, go ahead and share your content with me. If I like it, I’ll share it with others. If I don’t I won’t. Either way, I may still learn something. And, if you find my content interesting go ahead and share it with others. if you don’t find it interesting, don’t share it. Either way, feel free to comment.

How you do you feel about social media promiscuity?

Twitter name: @berniebay
Bernie

Why the Tampa Bay Rays Should Use Twitter

My Tampa Bay Rays have won the American League Championship! The ALC series was a nail-baiting battle that went to the last out in the seventh game. The Rays defeated the formidable defending champs – Boston Red Sox – to earn their first ever trip to the World Series! Way to go Rays!!!

While watching the series on television, I was actively Tweeting during game 6 and game 7 on two Twitter sessions for #redsox and #rays. The hash mark preceding each team name indicates a dedicated Twitter feed for each. Anyone Tweeting using either of these two identifiers were displayed on the feed.

The result is an ongoing conversation among hundreds of people actively Tweeting commentary throughout the game.

I noticed there is an official Raysbaseball Twitter account called @raysbaseball but it was not active during any of the playoffs. I suppose the Rays’ front office staff had their hands full managing the unexpected race through the post season. They apparently didn’t plan to staff social media marketing activities like Twitter. But, it’s a missed opportunity to spread the viral brand of the Rays during a time when they’ve never been hotter.

The Rays have become popular in a short time this season. Everyone loves a success story. But, the viral opportunity for the Rays organization to expand the Rays brand is huge, especially during the playoffs.

The Facebook Group for Rays Baseball is a closed group. I requested to join it. I will monitor how quickly they respond to my request.

My family and I have been huge Rays fans for years (long before they dropped “Devil” from their name). This year has been unbelievably exciting.

But, I am disappointed the Rays haven’t once promoted their online presence in Facebook, Twitter or their fan forum on their website. I’ve never heard any of the television or radio announcers mention any of these fan web destinations. Isn’t offline marketing supposed to coexist with online marketing?

With so many Rays fans coming on board around the U.S. the Rays marketing department should be actively promoting their online community during this time as they enter the World Series.

During each upcoming World Series game, @raysbaseball should actively participate in the #rays Twitter discussions. I estimate there were several hundred people Sunday night during game 7 Tweeting with #rays. During the World Series there will no doubt be more.

Congratulations Rays for American League East and American League Champion titles!

Let’s go Rays! Let’s Tweet Rays!

Bernie

http://twitter.com/berniebay

Social Media Lines Blurring

As social media continues evolve, grow, blossom and even mature among both personal users and businesses, the lines are beginning to blur among them.

Well known social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are now being used in the same sentence as Twitter and Flickr.  Isn’t Twitter a micro-blogging tool?  Isn’t Flickr a photo content sharing tool?

What about YouTube?  Is YouTube a social networking site?

I don’t intend to give you a concrete answer to these questions.  Who am I to define these platforms? The user community is defining them.  But I will offer some offline comparisons to consider as you ponder this question.

If you belong to a health club, you joined it (presumably) to exercise.  On the surface, that is the purpose of a health club (or gym).  If you belong to a business organization such as a chamber or local business club, each of these organizations has a defined charter.  When you join any of these organizations mentioned here as examples, the premise of your membership is to participate in their charter.

Even if you joined any of the above for pure networking, you have to play by their rules.  You can’t go to your gym and hand out fliers and a business card in street clothes.  You’ll annoy so many patrons you’ll get kicked out. 

I have developed some very good relationships at my health club that carry into my personal and professional life.  I can say the same for a local non-profit business club I belong to (TBTF).  In both cases, my intent has been sincere.  I go to my healthclub to workout.  I go to TBTF functions to get involved, give of my time and talents and meet smart people.  Because both of these examples are local to me, I occasionally overlap.  I see people at my healthclub that belong to TBTF and vice versa.

The same can be said of social networking, even though the local aspect is much less a factor.  I know people in Facebook whom I also know in LinkedIn and Twitter, and vice versa.

So, what’s the benefit to this cross platform networking online?  I submit there are many benefits.  At a minimum I can meet other smart and interesting people through both platforms, and I really enjoy meeting smart people.

Since my profession is Internet marketing, and in particular we do search engine optimization (SEO) for our clients, another benefit is exposure to the content I produce.  Such exposure can result in content being shared among the network resulting in quality links.  Some content exposure can be incidental and some can be intentional. 

As I continue to network in the online social media world, I’m amazed at how the mutual benefits of social, networking and relationship building coincide with SEO value through the propagation of content and organic link building that occurs.

What’s your experience on social networks?  Which platforms do you use the most?  Which platforms mentioned here are social networking sites and which are (fill in the blank)?

 

Beyond Blogs

I frequently deliver a presentation on Web 2.0/Social Media Marketing. It’s a high level presentation that explains to business professionals what Web 2.0 is about. I cover RSS, blogs, podcasts, social networking, micro blogging, wikis and trends to watch. The presentation is available for download.

In my presentation I reference an article written by BusinessWeek in May 2005 which foretold the prominent rise of blogs in the corporate setting. The May 2005 cover story actually uses this phrase in reference to blogging: “Our Advice: Catch up or catch you later.”

The June 2nd issue of BusinessWeek is out and it’s a doozy! I recommend your read it!

The editors did a gem of a follow up story to the May 2005 article. Apparently, the web traffic to the May 2005 article is huge, not to mention the comments posted on their blog about it. Additionally, BW (much to their credit) felt compelled to update the story and particularly write about predictions they missed.

Remember, you should read the entire article. But, here are some excerpts:
“….Three years ago, we wrote a big story – but missed a bigger one….Blogs, it turns out, are just one of the do it yourself tools to emerge on the Internet. Vast social networks…now offer people new ways to meet and exchange information…These social connectors are changing the dynamics of companies around the world. Millions of us are now hanging out of on the Internet with customers, befriending rivals…It’s as if the walls around our companies are vanishing and old org charts are lying on their sides…Ambitious workers use these tools to land new deals and to assemble global teams for collaborative projects.”

Did you catch that last sentence??? These social tools are not just for teenagers. We (you, me and our colleagues) have figured out how to use them productively in our businesses.

The article goes on to talk about tools that have become very popular to include Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and Facebook. One person is quoted as saying “the new resume is 140 characters,” referencing the paradigm for communicating on Twitter. BTW, you can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay.

The article gives a few examples of large corporations – BT, IBM – getting real work done on inhouse social networking sites.

One point I feel is very well made (and resonates loud with me) is their first fix to the May 2005 article is to revise the title from “Blogs” Will Change Your Business to “Social Media Will Change Your Business.” Yeah! That hits the nail square on the head!!!

Another well stated point in reference to how people use social media is: “A new class of supercommunicators has emerged.” Another point nailed!

The article closes with this: “Even if the bubble burts – and we predict it will – the power of social media to transform our businesses and society will only grow.”

If you are hungry to learn more about the global impact of social media and how you should be participating, this article is a must read. Here is the link again: Business Week Blog Article

Next Page »