We say that the simple formula for profitable social media is Listen and Love… but companies have questions:
Who does the listening?
How to we manage this?
What if we try something that fails?
Some planning and organization will help, but that’s not an excuse to put off listening to the conversations that are already happening. The biggest mistake today would be not trying.
Chris Brogan, Charlene Li and David Meerman Scott are 3 of my favorite speakers on social media. Listen to any one of them for an hour to get a big picture of how social media is working inside a business.
Here all three share the stage. Specific examples of using social media, positive answers for those still asking how to justify and best of all, permission to jump in and try it in real time.
Marketers are asking if the new Facebook Groups will be valuable for marketing.
As Facebook continues to innovate ways for consumers to track and build relationships through their social graph, smart marketers are looking beyond ads for ways to engage their customers
Groups differ from Pages in a few key ways. Unlike Facebook Pages, Groups are not a communications channel designed for brand marketing. Pages allow you to communicate with Facebook users who are your fans – in other words, users who have opted in to receive promotional content that you publish from your Facebook Page via their news feed. Groups, on the other hand, are organizations of Facebook users who have opted in to receive content from (or create content for) their peers with whom they share a special interest or element of identity.
As a channel designed for marketing, Pages offer numerous ways to broadcast to and communicate with users who are fans and with those users’ friends. With a Group, however, admins can send messages to members, but, aside from invites from members, there are no viral acquisition mechanisms to bring new users to the Group.
Why then, are Groups valuable to marketers? Pages allow you two-way communication with Facebook users who are your fans or friends of your fans — they are Facebook’s premier brand marketing tool. Facebook Ads allow you one-way communication with users who are not yet your fans, but whose profile information matches that of your target audience. Groups are different from, and complementary to, both of these options because Groups, if used wisely and sparingly, allow you to communicate in a personal, bi-directional way with Facebook users who are not your fans, but who could be.
Since I’ve been using FourSquare, I’ve seen more luddite thinking that just about any new technology I’ve ever encountered.
If I go to a social media gathering, a tweet up, or Blogworld, I know there are lots of FourSquare users.. my phone is full of friends checking in.
However, at a business expo, a “Internet Marketers” convention or in most non-business settings, I’m alone.. the only person checking in. There a lot of FourSquare users near by, just not my friends.
I’m not bothered by “Why would I want to do that? comments from friends. I know that one sign that I got in early.. and will understand the technology and opportunities ahead of others. I know geo location based technology will continue to revolutionize marketing offline for the next decade.
The game of “checking in” is appealing. The badges an points are fun, but the real draw for me comes from the serendipity of finding a friend. That’s not happening much now, but just the idea that it could is a draw for me.
FourSquare For Business
Companies with loyalty programs can now integrate with FourSquare.
Think about this. More depth to customer relationships that already exist. Added to a system that already is appealing.
Right now, it’s a few large companies and the focus is still mostly coupons and discounts, but I like to think of how hotels and airlines use loyalty programs. Major decision for thousands of dollars can be influenced by giving an upgrade to a good customer.
Any business can have a listing on FourSquare. If you have a location where you like to see customers and clients, this is a must right now.
I do have a BestSellerAuthors.com Head Office. I’m the mayor, and only person checking in and not encouraging you to check in. Still looking for how this will work for virtual business. I have hope. Because no one actually lives on the net.. we’ve got to be somewhere
Here are a few key lessons that I share. Take a peek, and let me know what you are teaching to your community, business, or organization to ensure their success.
Active – Many folks give up on Twitter way too early! Actively participating, even when you don’t fully get it, is the only way Twitter will make sense.This means being active both as a listener and as “Tweeter”.
Be Honest – Share what you know, share what you don’t, ask for what you need, and give what you promise. The more transparent and authentic you are, the more respect you will get.
Click – Click before you tweet – there is nothing that frustrates more than a fantastic link to a post or resource that does not work. A simple”click and check” can save a lot of retweeting.
Don’t Worry! – Many new Tweeters worry about things like: Will I get followers? Will someone like/ not like what I say? What if no one responds? …. don’t worry. There is no one right way to Twitter. Discovering what works best is a lot trail and error. Be yourself. Have fun. Be open to learning from others, and you will do just fine!
Encourage – Some of my lowest days have been lifted up in seconds by my Twitter friends. In 140 characters we can turn someone’s day around, encouraging them to smile, get well, or make it through the day knowing someone is routing for their success.
Follow Wisely – With new Twitter tools coming out daily, there is no reason to fret over who to follow. Some of my favorite ways to find and connect with new followers are Mr. Tweet , Twellow.
The technologies we refer to as “social media” are more that a new channel to advertise and marketing through.
This revolution is bringing a new way of doing business.
Altimeter has released a survey of top retailer with data and perspective about where this is going and how social media (or might we say social business) is changing the game.
I’ve been experimenting with the viral power of tools like paper.li
The service’s goal is to present the best links and stories from people you follow on Twitter, or around a #hashtag or search or list.
Gaming the system would never work.. as you really don’t get much out of the few dynamic links… but it’s been fun to see what works, what get’s picked up and what people are looking for using paper.li and other services like it
Here’s on of dozens I was featured in today. GaryFPatton’s S-M-A-R-T Tips
At first, I discounted the importance of this. I get a tweet mention from the person who search included me and asked the founders of paper.li “Does anyone read these?”
I was thinking that some would create the daily paper and not even bother to read their own each day. I was wrong. The one pictured above had be retweeted 50 times when I got their shortly after it was released. I’ve seen others with a tweet number over 100.
I still haven’t cracked the code on what get these “papers” shared.. and frankly am not totally convinced those are live views. I know that far less than 50 will ever click through to my post.
When I asked other users whether anyone read, I got responses from some with local editions, targeted segmentation and loyal followings. My guess is that this is a growing trend. We don’t have time to read everything, so we go to the people who assemble things well.. even though the paper itself is http://bestsellerauthors.com/healthydone by software, someone had to pick who to follow or the keywords searched.
Which brings me to WHAT get included.
1. Photos
2. Links
3. Relevance
I’ve had dozens of links to posts picked up, likely more if you scroll down past the few that make the “first page” shown here. The FEW that get the most traction have had all 3 traits and never when I tried to get included.
How important will paper.li, et al become? We don’t know, but I since sharing relevant content, with photos and links works in every system or site, I will keep finding and sharing the best stuff I can.
Chris Brogan gets the revolution in marketing, business and life more than just about any human being I’ve met.
If you have heard me talk much about LISTEN and LOVE, you’ve heard a quote or two from Chris for sure, so I was delighted to find this piece of video that includes most of them.
Chris calls this his favorite keynote ever. Just 10 minutes of pure gold.
Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale’s rise to Web stardom. The lesson of Mister Splashy Pants is a shoo-in classic for meme-makers and marketers in the Facebook age.
Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit, a social-voting news website with geek allegiances, a small-town feel and a penchant for lighting up the memes your friends IM you about next week.
Emerging Leader of United Way Social Media Training and Workshop for businesses and leaders on October 28th at 5:30 at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP in Los Angeles
Warren Whitlock of BestSellerAuthors.com will train local business leaders on social media strategies they can use to create a buzz, draw a crowd, raise funds and build a community with a non-profit events. The live interactive training session and workshop will cover how social media can grow your business and help build awareness for campaigns such as United Way’s Creating Pathways Out of Poverty plan.
The workshop is open to the public. Seating is limited, RSVP by calling 213.808.6251 or via email EmergingLeaders@unitedwayla.org
BestSellerAuthors.com is a web site for authors, speakers, business professionals and though leaders sharing new ideas, best practices and promotional ideas to help experts create a presence online, share important memes and messages, attract new readers and business leads and create online marketing systems to make a book (or idea) a best seller. Warren Whitlock is the publisher.
United Way is a worldwide network in 30 countries and territories, including nearly 1,300 local organizations in the U.S. It advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all. Our focus is on education, income and health – the building blocks for a good quality of life. United Way recruits people and organizations who bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to get things done. LIVE UNITED is a call to action for everyone to become a part of the change.
United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways out of poverty by helping homeless people move into housing, providing students with the support they need to graduate high school prepared for college and the workforce, and helping hard-working families become financially stable. United Way identifies the root causes of poverty and works strategically to solve them by building alliances across all sectors, funding targeted programs and advocating for change.
Tonight’s Social Media Radio Show will have CEO of companies that can help you share your story better in social media.
We know that a story will stay with a person much better that a list of products and services. People think in stories.. help them learn about your message, your missions and your passion and they will be more likely to share it with many others.
Storify is in private beta, and can be described a way to create stories using social media. Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories.
@EdLovesSumo and I have been using storify and wondering at the possibilities. Burt will tell us when we all can use it.
Jordan Kretchmer (@jkretch), Founder and CEO of Livefyre background is in product development and brand strategy. At 17, he started his full-time career designing web applications for brands ranging from Subaru to Match.com to Pepsi to MINI Cooper. He spent nine years in the advertising industry, and where he managed the digital development teams.
Livefyre will turn your comments into LIVE conversations. You can replace your static comment section with a live stream of comments, images, and video. Built on chat technology, Livefyre brings the most engaging live conversations right to your content.
Eric Goldstein (@eGoldstein) is the CEO and founder of Amplify.com where he says “conversation is king”. He’s been on the show a couple of times and when I talked to the other guys, I realized how these all are working on the same goal.
Eric is a big USER of Amplify and we’ve had many great stories come out of extending the conversations that get started on Twitter.
Tune in to Social Media Radio at 7:00 PM Pacific (10:00 PM Eastern) on Friday 10/22 (that’s tonight)
And please TWEET, Share and LIKE this announcement, The more we grow, the more our your grow. Let’s all tell the story of Profitable Social Media together!
Burt Herman (
