Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

In the Land of the Website Manager we hear an oft-quoted mantra that we are taught always to adhere to.

Content is king.

This is the biggest beast in the website jungle and not one to be fooled with.

But then along came ‘context’ roaring like a lion demanding to be anyplace, anywhere, anytime.

In the past few days I was lucky enough to read two posts about these topics.

Check out Boagworld writer Colin James Firth who looks at the designer’s approach to a website and how important the content and a professional copywriter are in informing the design.

Then check out this post on TechCrunch about how video is consumed online.

It’s not enough to just have good content.

How do your users find it? And how are they consuming it?

Your content king needs context too.

This post was contributed by artist Vicki Boatright (aka BZTAT).

She specializes in contemporary artwork of dogs and cats. She is known worldwide for her unique and colorful pet portraits. I helped to create her website BZTAT Studios after meeting her in the Twitterverse.

The author of this blog is a British gal living in Canada. I live in Canton, OH in the USA. According to Google Maps, we are 1,254 miles and two countries apart.

How did we meet?

You guessed it. Social media.

The beauty of social media is that it knows no borders. It brings people together from all parts of the world and it allows us to develop relationships globally.

One year ago, I rarely communicated with people outside of my local geographical area that were not family or close friends. Now, I communicate with people from all over the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, etc. on a daily basis.

Through the use of Twitter, Facebook, my blog and other social media networks, I have been able to develop my “brand” as an animal artist, and I have a following from all over the world.

People not only know me, they enthusiastically support me and celebrate my artwork internationally.

Some of my best friends and fans are half a world away. How did that happen?

All I can say is, it just did.

It can happen for you, too, if you want it to.

My experience has been that people who do not feel successful with social media have somehow imposed limitations on themselves that restrict their networks. If you get too hung up on limiting things instead of allowing things to unfold and develop, you won’t have much success.

Twitter has changed my life, as that network more than any other has given me a global reach. It took awhile for me to understand it and to develop my niche with it, but once I gained some confidence, it opened up an infinite number of possibilities. Allowing those possibilities to develop, I believe, is what distinguishes me from others who have given up and said, “Twitter is too ADD for me!”

My suggestions for maximizing Twitter and other social media networks:

• Be yourself, be creative, and tell an interesting story. Share things about yourself that are unique and intriguing to others. For me, the story is told by my cat @BrewskieButt who lives with an artist @ in an emerging arts district in downtown Canton, OH. He shares about his life as the cat of an artist, connects with other pet oriented people, and he tweets about the Canton Arts District.




• Be social, friendly and helpful. No one likes a one sided conversation. Respond to the tweets of others and get to know people. Offer to help folks who have questions that you can answer. Ask questions when you need help. Twitter is a very Pay-It-Forward kind of community.




• Share interesting photos via Twitpic. People love pictures! I post photos of my artworks in progress, so that people can watch the piece develop. This, more than anything has “hooked” people on my artwork.




• When at a loss for words, post an interesting quote or link. We can’t always have a clever one liner in us to post, but followers love to find interesting quotes and informative links from others.




• Find people that you admire and learn from them. Watch what others do and see what works for them. You don’t have to copy them, but find ways to incorporate their ideas into your own personal style.




• Be real. Authenticity is important. The more genuine you are, the more closely people will want to follow you and your brand or ideas.




• Use an application that allows you to group your followers. I use Tweetdeck because it allows me to group followers that I want to follow more closely. With groups, I can be more liberal about who I follow back without getting overwhelmed by zillions of tweets that drown out the ones I want to follow the most.

Have fun! Enjoy the adventure that social media can bring you!

(Globe image by Horia Varlan on Flickr under a Creative Commons License)

I’m about to deliver my final social media seminar in a series that I’ve designed for the National Screen Institute.

We’ve looked at Twitter and Facebook and this Wednesday I’ll tackle some of the other stuff that makes up a social media toolkit including blogging, RSS, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn.

One message I’ve carried through these seminars is that social media is hard work. Bloody hard work.

I’ve been asked by seminar participants, ‘How much time should I devote to this stuff?’

And I’ve not been able to put a number on it. All I can say is work hard at it, be patient, consistent and you will eventually see results.

I think there is still a perception that having Twitter and Facebook accounts along with a handful of others is enough to tick the social media marketing box.

It isn’t.

You can’t do the social media thing half-heartedly.

You almost have to live it which means making it an intrinsic part of your everyday life.

This reminds me of something I recently heard …

Once upon a time we all had radio and TV came along. We had tapes and vinyl and CDs came along. We had VHS and Beta cassettes and DVD came along. People derided the new way. Soon the new way was the way. I think the same is true of the social web. It takes time for these behaviours to weave themselves into your life.

But I’m quite serious when I say social media is hard freakin’ work.

Making connections on the web is hard work.

Writing regular blog posts is hard work.

Keeping up three Twitter accounts is hard work.

Maintaining two Facebook accounts is hard work.

Delivering social media seminars is hard work.

But wait.

For me, hard work doesn’t mean ‘unenjoyable.’ It means I have to put my heart and soul into all that I do (and consequently sleep a lot at weekends!)

The social web and many of its parts are my passions.

Which is why I think social media isn’t necessarily for everyone.

If you don’t care enough, you’ll do a poor job of representing your company online.

If you’re gonna dive into this social media thing, do it with both feet and prepare for deep water.

Photo courtesy of ittybittiesforyou via a Creative Commons Licence

At the end of 2009 I committed to Project52 – a year long challenge to post new content to your blog every week.

As part of that I asked what you’d like to read about in 2010.

This post is a direct response to one of the suggested topics I received from my online pal and fellow Canadian blogger, Heather whose blog The Unexpected Twists and Turns we worked on together to revamp during ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge.

Heather wanted to learn more about using Facebook and StumbleUpon to increase traffic to her own blog.

Using Facebook

My number one rule for using Facebook to promote your blog or business is that you must provide added value.

Merely repeating what readers would find if they visited to your blog or website, and nothing more, is a turn off.

First you have choices to make. Will you be using a Facebook group, fan page or your own profile to promote your blog?

Networked Blogs

To ensure your blog posts are promoted on Facebook you should look at an application called Networked Blogs which will push new content from your blog to your Facebook profile.

This means your new blog posts will automatically appear in your Facebook stream. Although Networked Blogs is an excellent tool, using it is not. You may have to fiddle around a lot before figuring out it works.

So, let’s assume you’ve done this and your blog posts are being added to your Facebook account. Now what?

Establish your Facebook page as a go-to destination

You must establish yourself (your Facebook account/fan page or group) as a go-to place for information about a specific topic. If, like Heather, you are writing about your local neighbourhood then you should subscribe to other blogs and websites which provide information about where you live and what is happening there.

Then you can decide what it is you wish to publish as status updates on Facebook.

As well as reading the stuff about your local neighbourhood (and replace the word ‘neighbourhood’ with whatever your chosen industry is) you should establish a relationship with those sites. Leave comments, follow those folks on Twitter and Facebook. Create links with them. Build and nuture a relationship.

This works to benefit everyone:

• You help promote and share information created by others
• You demonstrate to the author of those sites and its readers that you have a shared interest
• You begin to build credibility

Nuturing relationships

Eventually some wonderful things will happen.

You will receive new Facebook friend requests from folks that have discovered you because you grew your presence online. These are new eyeballs for your blog.

The authors of those sites begin to see you as a genuine force and will begin to promote you by commenting on your blog or by sharing your posts on their Facebook.

As this network grows, others that you have friended on Facebook will ‘like’ your updates and leave Facebook comments thus drawing attention to you and your blog.

Do you see a common theme emerging here? The one that’s central to all ‘social media’ activity?

Relationships.

Building a following online, anywhere, is about give and take. You cannot expect to launch a blog and for hundreds or thousands of folks to flock to you overnight.

That recognition will only occur once you demonstrate to your peers that you a) exist; b) make yourself known; c) engage with like-minded folks online.

It’s hard work. It takes time.

Providing added value

At the start of this post I talked about ‘added value.’ This means publishing information on Facebook that your readers will not find you publishing elsewhere.

This is how I generally use the National Screen Institute Facebook fan page.

Of course, some information is repeated but I try to include links to cool stuff I’ve read and have not mentioned elsewhere.

Networking with others on Facebook

Connect with other like-minded folks on Facebook.

Find and join groups that cover similar topics to you. Contribute to those group pages by responding to their content and posting links to your own.

Ditto for fan pages.

Are there gurus and popular spokespeople in your industry? Find them on Facebook and establish a relationship.

Organising events, advertising

Heather, who is writing about a location, could use Facebook’s event feature to organise a get together in Montreal and have Facebook manage the RSVPs.

She could also use Facebook’s very targetted advertising feature to spread the word about her blog. You can build your ad on Facebook (thereby saving you the cost of hiring a designer) and set your own budget.

You can pinpoint your target audience down to the minutest detail.

These are just some of the ways Facebook can help create interest in you and your blog.

Now let’s look at StumbleUpon.

Using StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a website that recommends other sites for you to check out based on personal preferences you provide

I discovered Miss Britt through StumbleUpon.

While there are a number of different features on StumbleUpon, I primarily use it to do two things:

1) Click the ‘Stumble!’ button installed in my web browser in the hopes of discovering fabulous new sites to visit (see Miss Britt above).

2) Add my own recommended sites for others to ‘Stumble!’

The second action here has sent lots of traffic to my blog and the National Screen Institute’s website. The traffic comes in short bursts but it’s still significant. By adding my recommendations those sites then show up when others ‘Stumble!’

To do all this you must set up a StumbleUpon account.

Like Networked Blogs I didn’t find StumbleUpon particularly intuitive to use so it may take you a while to figure it all out.

Like most things on the internet, these strategies can take time to show results.

Be patient, sensible and give as well as take and you will soon see the benefits.

This post was contributed by Ari Herzog.

Ari Herzog is an online media strategist for organizational leaders, providing consulting, speaking, and writing services.

He is also a first-term city councilor in the city of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Maybe you know Ari and read his blog. His posts usually cause a stir and he remains the blogger on whose posts I’ve commented the most.

Sales revenue forecasts are down, customers are jumping to your competition, and you were just charged by your boss with being the de facto social media manager because the company lacks the funds to hire someone new.

“Great!” you mumble to yourself, recognizing you know next to nil on what social media is, let alone how to use it to boost the company line.

But, you’ve put in 10 years with the firm, the management trusts you to get the work done, and you realize you have nothing to lose.

First things first, you create a Twitter account. It’s the talk of the town and everyone from Oprah to Ellen to Britney uses it, so it’s gotta mean something.

You start following your role models. You reply to them and their questions but they don’t reply to you. In time, you broadcast your own thoughts or products the company launches. You notice strangers with weird names like jonas556 and BigProductRevu follow you. You don’t know why, and they don’t message you, but you assume they are fans.

When someone does send you a message, you don’t know because you don’t know you are supposed to check that link called Replies. Twitter is a failure in the first week.

Then, you turn to Facebook. You don’t know Facebook from skydiving, but because your 14-year-old kid is on it, he shows you the ropes on creating a profile which you do in the name of the company. You don’t get that, either.

You watch some YouTube videos and add some comments. Nobody comments back.

The sarcasm level of the above is very high, but it could be a real situation.

Maybe you aren’t like the fictitious person above. Maybe you are engaging with your customers every day on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Maybe you have a Ning-powered community in the name of your corporate brand. Maybe your company distributes audio-recorded press conferences on iTunes and video-recorded product launches on Blip.tv and uploads employee photos to Flickr. Maybe you’re using the web like the best of the best. But something’s not right. You have the passion but you’re getting tired and burned out.

You’re having a nervous breakdown.

Sorry to break it to you, but GOOD JOB! You are supposed to get burned out now and then. If you don’t question what you do and why you do it, you risk doing it for the wrong reasons.

Every optometrist will tell you to take a break from staring at computers or reading books to exercise your eyes. Every marathon trainer will tell you to not run every day because you need to relax your muscles. So, why do you write a status update on your favorite social networking service whenever you have something to say? If you don’t send that update, do you truly think your fans and customers will wonder where you are?

If you’re allowed to take a vacation with your family and leave your techno gadgets at home, surely you can take a vacation from tweeting, facebooking, and youtubing. If you don’t, I assure you that you will develop a mental illness. Your doctor would tell you to take care of your body before exerting physical pressure, so I suggest you similarly take a break, if even a deep breath, before sending that next update out.

Life will go on without that update.

And, if you can recognize life does go on without one social media marketing update, then imagine the repercussions if you take a week off from Twitter and Facebook. Continue your offline marketing instead, or focus on increasing the branding of that Ning community. Using social media does not mean using every tool every second of every day.

Unless they lose their funding, they’re not going away. So, take a break and protect your immunity.

I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last but I’m getting a bit bored of reading that social media is all about Twitter (or maybe I’m getting bored of reading about Twitter?)

It isn’t. And it never will be.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter. Most of the time.

And most of the time, it loves me back.

But people – there is a world outside Twitter.

I worry about the marketers who think as long as they have a Twitter account they have their social media bases covered.

No. You. Don’t.

I should be thankful that there’s so much interest in Twitter – most of the popular posts on my site from the past 12 months are about Twitter.

This all goes back to what I’ve said before: social media is a silly term. Misleading in fact.

There are many tools ‘out there’ that allow you and me and many others to talk to each other online including Facebook, Twitter et al. Many (most?) websites let you communicate through comments or using sharing tools.

In fact, the internet in general lets us all communicate with each other and have ongoing dialogue. That’s why it’s called ‘the social web.’

So to focus on one website (Twitter) is a mistake. It’s also foolish for websites dedicated to social media to largely be trumpeting Twitter.

There is so much more out there.

And if we’re to teach communication professionals (and anyone else willing to listen) about the benefits of the social web we’re not doing those folks any favours by remaining so narrow-minded.

This isn’t a case of me listing for you all the sites, in addition to Twitter, that make up the collective we call ‘social media tools.’

I’m talking about the entire internet. This blog. Your comments and so much more.

The internet has given us a way to talk to each other. To listen to each other. To share. To create. To manipulate content.

If you’re a communications professional, for the love of God, don’t let Twitter cloud your vision of what social media really is.