Tag Archives: Social Media Marketing

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Social Speak vs. Broadcasting

by: Jamey Brown

I always stress the point that social media is a communication tool more than anything. If you look at social channels as a means of broadcasting then you will fail. Why? Because it is about talking, conversing, listening. Not push push push. If I’m at a party and walk up to a group of people and there’s one person talking all about himself and not listening to anyone else, I immediately walk away (and after hearing a person like that, typically straight for the bar). It is a back and forth. And people will listen to you if you listen to them. The ONLY way a connection is made is by both parties involved listening.

So, next time when crafting messaging around any content for your brand, remember, social speak is how we talk in real life conversations. Not what you see on a billboard driving down the street.

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Why Forums Are Still Cool

by: Jamey Brown

Remember these? Although they may seem a bit archaic, they are one of the first forms of social media. I’ll admit, until recently I hadn’t engaged in a forum since I was younger (when that’s all there really was). But I’ve had to delve into this digital domain head first since one of our clients is ramping up a new push for them. That being said, I forgot how engaging they were. It is a much more long-winded type speak, with a lot of room to become an influencer in your industry. I have also gotten some great practice from the Social Media Examiner Clubs which are great for anyone in this field. Forums are still very cool and yes, people are still talking in them. So, find some that pertain to your industry and give them a shot. (Hint: a good place to start is Google+ Communities. These are forums disguised in social media camouflage)

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5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Implementing a Social Media Strategy

by: Jamey Brown

In my head it goes: goal setting – brainstorm – idea pool – checks and balances – strategy – tactics – finished plan. This has been my process for developing strategy plans thus far. Everyone’s strategy development is different, but the overarching themes can be applicable to all. Oh yeah, and strategy (since I see it everywhere and no real description attached) is the high level plan(s) that’s built to achieve certain, pre-determined goals. Tactics are the executional steps that help achieve the overarching goals of the strategy. So, before you make the jump to executional, think of these five questions while you are developing your overarching strategic plan.

1. What are my goals? Short term? And long term?

It’s all pointless if you are not striving to hit certain goals you’ve set. There needs to a be a concise list of short term, immediate goals you want to knock out, and then a concise list of the big, 6 month-ish goals you want to achieve over time. Determining goals is the very first step.

2. Will I need 1 overarching strategy? Or several?

Sometimes, multiple strategies are needed if the client you are working with is a large one and has multiple large goals to achieve on a more corporate branding level. That and the fact that they could have a campaign that seeks to accomplish two very different things. Do I recommend them implementing a bipolar campaign? No. But sometimes several strategies are needed to accomplish different sets of goals.

3. What tactics do I need in place to fulfill the goals of my strategy?

VERY IMPORTANT. These are the mechanical pieces that keep the big machine running. You need actionable steps that say, “this is how you are going to actually do it on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.”

4. Is my strategy fulfilling BOTH my long term and short term goals?

Always go back and double check yourself. Asking this question forces you to keep your goals on your mind at all times. Sometimes “creativity” can blind people’s strategic thinking and “cool” can take a front seat very fast. DON’T let this happen. Goals are always #1! Let cool and creativity come naturally.

5. What is the lifespan (timeline) of this strategy? 

Simple. How long will this plan be in place? Again, determine how long you think it will take to accomplish the long term goals at hand and build a strategy that reflects that timeline. It could be three months; it could be one year. Give yourself checkpoints along the way.

What are some other steps you implement before developing a new social media strategy plan? 

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“The Hard Is What Makes It Great”

by: Jamey Brown

 

The life of a Community Manager, Strategist or Director is a hard one. One that sometimes has weeks where you want to pull out your hair, click “hang up” on a conference call and power off all devices. These weeks entail late nights, constant writing, and organizational skills that some think don’t even exist.

But when it’s all said and done, and you’ve put in the time and the hard work, watch this clip after each of these weeks. Make it a ritual. Exhale, because these weeks are the hard weeks. The ones that separate the good from great. And as you exhale, know that you conquered the hard, you achieved Community Manager greatness. Because in the end, if it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.

 

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Don’t Let Content Overwhelm You

by: Jamey Brown

This morning as I arose with the sounds of Atlanta’s Midtown outside my window, I already had social on the brain. Today is a busy day in terms of monitoring certain communities and tidying things up simply to be prepared for this week. So, per usual, I got up, flipped on the coffee and plugged in.

Right now, at this very moment, I have six tabs open. One is Gmail. Four are social networks. The last one is WordPress (I guess technically another social network, but let’s not pick over small cookies). With this plethora of content at my fingertips, how do I filter it all to what I want? How do I not have a panic attack because there’s. just. so. much.? Well, it’s easy, manage yourself, not the networks.

Right now, I have too much content available at one time. Space things out into small segments of time. Overload can be detrimental.

Schedule what you want to get out of the next hour. I need to reply to some e-mails. I need to check my Google+ Communities and I need to monitor two specific LinkedIn Groups. These three things are priority for the next hour. So, I can remove my Twitter and Facebook tabs for now (and the WordPress one after I finish writing this on my break! Ha!)

Take your time. Content is much more effectively absorbed if you actually slow things down a bit and digest what you are reading AS you read it. Say it back to yourself.

Take small breaks. Now this does not work for everybody, but I am much more effective if I review something for 30 minutes and then take a 5-10 minute break. Rinse and repeat this and you will be surprised how much you get done by the end of the day.

Breathe. Remember, there’s always a tomorrow. Knock out what is priority for the next 24 hours, breathe and begin to schedule into the week.

What are some other content management tips you’ve found to be useful?  

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6 Reasons Why “Driving Traffic” is Vital

by: Jamey Brown

On my way home for Easter this weekend (from Atlanta to Athens, Georgia) I had to stop, turn off the main highway and go around, through a gas station, and get back onto the main highway about 500 feet down the road. Why? A water line had busted, thus forcing cars to have to go around and reconnect to the same road a few hundred feet further down. Pulling through the gas station, along with all of the other cars, and back onto the main highway I thought, “I was redirected here. And now, I am in front of this gas station and I am a little hungry…” The bottom line: I was driven, directed to a destination where I could potentially make a purchase for something I wanted. Now, I understand gas stations are a hard comparison because they offer various things (as opposed to an ad that offers a specific product or service), but the real life metaphor got me thinking…

Cost effective social ad buys must be specifically targeted. The more targeted, typically, the better results.

Aim for the enthusiasts. In the end, they will convert and convince more than anyone else.

Make sure your destination is inline with your ads. User confusion ends in click-offs and no conversions.

Monitor your campaigns daily. Be it traditional Facebook ads, promoted posts, Twitter trends, etc. Always know what’s doing well and what’s not.

In conjunction with the above, adjust your ad images, copy, spend, interests, demographics, etc. based on what is working and what isn’t.

Rinse and repeat. If you had a successful ad campaign that had a high CTR and a plethora of page views and visits on the destination you wanted, then repeat that strategy! Be wary though, some adjustments might need to be made as all campaigns aim towards different people.

 

What have you found to be a successful way to drive traffic to the destination you want? 

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5 Ways You Can Effectively Harness YouTube

by: Jamey Brown

YouTube reaches 1 billion people per month. Let me repeat, YouTube reaches 1 billion people per month. That’s almost 15% of the world. YouTube is dominating the world, literally. So how can this massive reach be activated correctly? Even as a social marketer it is still hard to sometimes wrap my head around how YouTube can generate leads, create brand awareness and encourage or produce sales. It is still seen as a nesting hub for multimedia content for brands – not all, but many. Here are 5 ways that YouTube can be creatively used to further brand awareness, create good word-of-mouth and generate sales.

1. Include CTA’s in the video itself – ask your audience to take action in the comment thread below. Or better yet, in real life. You’ve made the effort to produce this video content, so get as much out of it as you can. Activate your audience visually. Trust me, it sticks.

2. Create branded playlists – YouTube hosts all genres of videos. If applicable, create playlists for specific purposes of your brand. For example, if you are a bakery brand that bakes a diverse group of foods it would be smart to have quick “how to’s” playlist of each food (ie. cakes, breads, etc.) By doing this you will create a hub that your users can continue to come back to and use as a source. Retaining users and being seen as a leader in your industry are huge wins.

3. Properly brand ALL aspects of your channel – everything from your skin to your channel picture should be sharply branded. Along with this, make sure your channel is integrated with ALL of your other social platforms. This information lives in your Channel Art photo and will allow users to browse your other branded networks with just once click.

4. Tag, title and link each video… correctly – this is the “no-brainer” of the group. Always make sure your keywords are applicable to the video. Make sure they are ACTUAL words users type in to search your product – put yourself in the seat of the average person searching something within the ballpark of your product. Also, title your video with good keywords that people will actually search. Put your creative ego aside and title your videos for results, not shininess.

5. Don’t be afraid to engage - when subscribers (or non-subscribers) start commenting, engage back! Keep the conversation going just like you would on Facebook or Twitter. A brand voice needs to exist on all platforms, not on only certain ones.

Create a catchy trailer video (Bonus) – when users land this will be the first thing they see. So, make it concise and make it connect. 

What are some other ways YouTube can be harnessed effectively?  

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3 Reasons Why Facebook “Communities” Are Better Than “Fan Clubs”

by: Jamey Brown

In the past few days, I have noticed the conversations taking place online at SXSW. Let me be clear, I’m not in Austin, but I’ve have been tracking conversations on Twitter, Facebook and my catalog of blogs. I have noticed the same words and ideas coming from these conversations and that is “how do we all grow our communities?” But then the conversation ends on that note. I’ve been left hanging on the second 50% of this method of “growing communities.” Where did it go? Where’s the next half of what’s supposed to be said? What I mean by that second half is “who’s joining your community?” This is more important to me, by far. I’d rather have 500 dedicated contributors who converse with each other and the brand than 1,000 fans who just sit there, not activated. With that in mind, here are three reasons why Facebook “communities” (no worries, we’ll get to Google+ in the next entry!) are more valuable than Facebook “fan clubs.”

1. Connection: yeah yeah, I know you’ve heard it, but you’ve heard it because it’s true. Fan clubs don’t build connections. Communities build connections. How? When you become part of a community (both offline and online) you become transparent. The community feel enables you to let your guard down a little bit and open up with genuine thought, creativity and respect. When this happens, the connection airwaves are 100% open. You just can’t beat that value.

2. Word-Of-Mouth: this is all the good stuff that comes after you have a successful community. Or, it can be all of the negative chatter. But for now, let’s look at the positive effects. When an online community is thriving, and a brand is at the center of conversation, fans (yes, real people) are conversing with one another about not only the brand, but other topics that have surfaced within in each comment thread. Fan clubs, if there is any chatter going on period, tend to only stick to promotional dialogue. “That’s so awesome!” type language. And don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing to hear, but you want more than just that same hollow comment reverberated in your community.

3. Friendship: remember this? In the beginning… Facebook was created help people find like-minded friends. That fan number is actually made up of people with brains and points of views. What are communities made up of? Exactly! When you scroll down a Facebook business page’s wall, see how many people are conversing with each other. Trust me, it exists. I’ve seen communities (and not just on Facebook) where people are asking others “what time they are going to a specific event” or “are they there at the event?” If you are on a page of interest and you see this type of conversation flowing then I’d suggest clicking “like.”

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An Ode to Community Managers

by: Jamey Brown

You’re a creator. A curator. A communicator.

You’re an editor. A director. A writer.

You’re an analyst. An interpreter. An advertiser.

You’re a sun up to sun down (and then some) worker. A “not leaving till it’s done” researcher.

You’re an orchestrator . A leader. A helper.

You’re a contributor. But most importantly, a listener.

You’re a doer. An observer. A specialist.

You’re a linker. A connector. A seeker.

You’re a Community Manager 

Congrats on being awesome 

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Should All Brands Be Onboard With “Real Time Marketing?”

by: Jamey Brown

I was reading a good piece by Scott Monty yesterday on what exactly “real time marketing” was and if it should even be a term. After taking 24 hours to digest the piece and digest the comments, I woke up with these thoughts about the newly slated strategy:

- I like this term, but it will soon be overused by every marketer out there and will then die a tragic, buzzword death.

- No, not all brands need to adopt this style of marketing. It needs to be applicable to A. your brand and B. your brand’s campaign.

- Don’t forget normal marketing.

- Not everything has to be “live.” I swear, as soon as a harlem shake comes down the pike it’s off to the races on who can push out the fastest blog post. And half the time, they aren’t worth the keystrokes that went into writing them. When something viral hits and I read these immediate write-ups on it, they usually just say that it happened…and that’s it. Is it too much to ask to be informative these days?

- Force messaging is not the answer. During the Oscars I saw SO many brands pushing campaigns that had no business being lumped into this stream of conversation. Again, don’t compromise your brand’s mantra just because a big event is coming up.

Bottom line: Real Time Marketing can be effective, but under the right circumstances and for the right brand. Always be wary of marketing trends before decisions are made.

Do You Know Brands Who Are Doing A Good Job With “Real Time Marketing?” A Bad Job?