12 Most Magical Ways to Make Meaningful Media

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 Meaningful media helps your business grow in today’s noisy landscape. When you turn off the noise and turn up the magic you get three things:

• Simplicity
• Clarity
• Purpose

But magic doesn’t always come in a rabbit-filled hat. So, here are some tips for the 12 most magical ways to make your media more meaningful:

1. Automagically share your instagram photos on Twitter

Automagically sharing photos on Twitter makes your feed more visually appealing. But sharing photos on Twitter isn’t quite so seamless. It’s mostly a text-based platform, which is why it’s even more necessary to pump up the magic. So… why not create a secret magic recipe?
You can use the platform If This Then That (IFTTT.com) to create a recipe which will automagically share your Instagram photos to your Twitter stream.
Once you turn the recipe on, people can now view your beautiful photos on both platforms — just like magic. But please be sure that the photos you share on Instagram best suit your brand. For example, if you run a shoe company but share photos of food on Instagram, this will leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth (pun intended). And it’ll likely cause a lot of confusion with your brand messaging.
Strive for clarity with your messaging by making sure what you choose to share has meaning behind the photos. If it’s not immediately apparent, at least make sure there is some sort of symbolism that corresponds with your brand.
For example, when Audi isn’t sharing photos of cars, they may share an image of tire tracks in the snow. This leaves room for imagination, while still aligning with the core of their brand.

2. Tell stories

You don’t need to be David Copperfield to meld storytelling with magic. Let your imagination run wild. Weave worthy moments of your brand story into your content to make your magic credible. This shows that you’re a quality showman, which builds trust with your customers. Telling stories also creates more impact across your various media platforms, if you tell them right.

3. Cross-post content

When you find the magic in one platform, you’ll want to cross-post it to another to re-create the magic. But wait. You’ll want to make sure you have the magic touch.
Each social network has a different set of tricks. So make sure that you don’t cross-post content without understanding the conversations first. Some social networks simply work well together. Others? Not so much.
For example:

• Pinterest and Google+ go together like peanut butter and jelly.
• Instagram and Twitter can work together well too (see above).
• Facebook and Twitter are completely different conversations. Do not automatically share the same content across both of these networks. Hashtags are helpful on Twitter but can come across annoying on Facebook.
• LinkedIn and Twitter can work well together (just make sure you remove any hashtags when sharing your updates on LinkedIn).

4. Use visuals

Couple the written word with beautiful visuals to achieve depth and clarity of the experience. And yes, the right visuals make it an experience.
Make sure each visual you choose makes sense for your brand. For example, if your customers are of the Millennial generation, find images that best represent this demographic. You can do this by either using vintage-style photos, or making young people the main characters in the stories you tell and the images you select.

5. Curate content with context

Context clarifies meaning. When you use context, you get not only clarity — but meaning and purpose. And this makes for awesome magic.
For example, instead of using the headline of an article in a tweet, why not tweak the tweet so that you create context around why you’re sharing it? This makes your content more meaningful. And in turn, it creates more meaning around your media.
Anyone can share a simple headline. But when you take the time to tweak it, you show that you’re human. And humans can make some awe-inspiring magic — if we curate accordingly.

6. Slow it down

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” ~ Ghandi
Seek out more substance with quality content. Learn how to slow down the fast-paced media of yesterday and use slow media to inspire instead. Slow media helps you laugh, think, and question the status quo. Slow media helps you rise above the noise, and settle into your stories (no screaming necessary).

7. Elicit enchantment

Enchantment is “the state of being under a spell.” When you elicit enchantment, you build an ecosystem around your brand — and you engage with your customers in a real, authentic way. But as Guy Kawasaki discusses in his book Enchantment, it’s a process, not an event. The best way to keep enchantment strong is to enjoy the process. That’s where there’s proof.

8. Do less marketing

Your media platform has more value than any marketing that you create. Your media is where the magic happens. And here’s the thing: when you put the focus on creating high-quality media first, you don’t need to use as much marketing.
More media, less marketing is the way to go. You’ll instill more meaning and trust into your brand. And you’ll cut to the core of who you are, so that you don’t need to market yourself as hard.

9. Intersect science and magic

Data-driven metrics can sometimes take away certain synergies. So, no matter how technically savvy you become, make sure that you leave room to get transported by magic. When you believe that there’s more to life than you know about, you start to sync with synchronicities. The other synergistic benefit is that this concept also allows for some insightful stories.

10. Be human

Magicians may seem like machines, but the best ones know how to show that they’re human. They are masters at explaining the nuances of human behavior and awareness. They use the various quirks in human perception to learn how the mind works and they use psychology as the underpinning of their tricks. They know that magic is not only about being human — it’s also about being smart.

11. Gain levity

Levity is the luxurious lack of a leash. Well, that’s my definition — which is why levity is necessary when you’re magically making media. You don’t need anything holding you back when you need to be lifted up, up, up and away.
Now, the dictionary definition of levity is “humor or frivolity, especially in the treatment of a serious matter.” You don’t need to be a comedian like George Carlin, but it can’t hurt to try to levitate towards the art of comedy.

12. Create art

Kurt Vonnegut believes that “the arts are… a very human way of making life more bearable.” And I think he’s onto something.
Writer and ceremonial magician Alan Moore believes that magic is indistinguishable from art — and that it’s the manipulation of symbols, words, or images to achieve changes in consciousness.
So the next time you seek a magical way to make meaningful media, know that you’re co-creating your future consciousness — by creating art. Laugh, think, tell stories, sing, and create. Just make sure it’s magical.
What are some other magical ways to make meaningful media? Please comment below.

Photo credit: Big Stock Photos

How to Benefit from the LinkedIn Publishing Platform

Did you know you can publish your articles on the LinkedIn publishing platform?

Do you want to build more authority in your niche?

LinkedIn is opening up its publishing platform to all 277 million+ members!

In this article, I’ll show you how high-quality content creators and bloggers can use LinkedIn’s publishing platform to build their influence.

Why LinkedIn Publishing Platform?

 

I’ve always said you don’t have to be anointed as an influencer to build online influence. It’s up to you to contribute to your community, share valuable experience and create astute content that shows your thought leadership.

The LinkedIn publishing platform gives you the opportunity to expand your reach in a major way. Since all LinkedIn members have access to the platform, it’s critical for you to create high-quality content that differentiates you.

Your published posts show up at the top of your LinkedIn profile.

With the LinkedIn publishing platform, you can follow other publishers and build your own followers in the process. While your LinkedIn followers have the potential to see your LinkedIn posts, they aren’t official network connections. (It’s similar to LinkedIn’s current model for following LinkedIn-appointed influencers.)

Any posts you publish on LinkedIn are tied to your professional profile and show up near the top of your profile. This means your thought leadership insights are showcased when someone views your LinkedIn profile.

The first post I published to LinkedIn helped me attract over 200 new followers, and my profile views were up 38% week over week! These stats tell me that the LinkedIn publishing platform is going to be a great place to share longer-form, thought leadership content.

In the rest of this article I give you best practices for making the most of the LinkedIn publishing platform.

#1: Create Valuable, Attractive Content

 

Before you start posting, have a plan in place. What content is most useful for your audience? Is your post too salesy? Although there’s no formal editorial process, LinkedIn makes it clear that sales-oriented content won’t be tolerated (after all, that’s what the advertising platform is for).

LinkedIn has some helpful guidelines in their Help Center about what to publish. This is a good reference for understanding how to frame your content so it resonates with and adds value to both your established audience and your potential audience (which will now be even greater than your existing LinkedIn network).

Make sure your posts are scanable.

The general guidelines I’ve seen (including LinkedIn’s) recommend keeping posts between 400 and 600 words and publishing weekly. However, you could certainly experiment with these parameters and determine what works best for you.

Like other social networks, people want to consume information quickly. Make it easy for them by creating scannable, attractive content. A few best practices are using a compelling headline, placing an eye-catching image at the top of your posts, bolding important text and breaking up longer paragraphs.

Feel free to enhance your articles with YouTube videos or content from SlideShare to make them as interesting and useful as possible.

When you’re ready to write an article on the LinkedIn publishing platform, it’s pretty easy. Go to your LinkedIn home page and look for the pencil icon in the box at the top where you would typically share an update.

When you click the pencil icon, you’ll see the publishing editor. This is where you create your post.

LinkedIn’s publishing editor is very simple to use. It’s similar to the WordPress editor or Microsoft Word. You can type or paste your text into the editor and format it right there. Below is a snapshot of what my first post looks like within the editor:

What a post looks like within the editor.

Your LinkedIn post doesn’t have a bio section. You’ll need to create a bio at the end of each post. Your bio should include a sentence or two about who you are, what you do and who you help, a link to your website or blog or even a specific call to action.

It’s a good idea to make the most of all of your resources. In my bio below, I’ve linked my name to my Google+ profile, and on my Google+ profile I added LinkedIn to the list of sites I contribute to. This ensures that Google picks up my authorship profile for my LinkedIn posts.

Be sure to create a bio section at the end of every post you publish!

Before you hit Publish, please be sure to review your post and check it for grammar and spelling (the Preview option is helpful here). But if you don’t catch everything, you can go back and edit your post any time.

#2: Share Your Post Everywhere

 

To maximize your reach and engagement inside and outside of LinkedIn, share your post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you have a LinkedIn company page, share it there as well (assuming your post is relevant to your company page’s followers).

This kind of aggregate social networking adds credibility and encourages more shares and engagement across the social web. In turn, all of that engagement sends social signals to Google’s search algorithm and can help increase your visibility in online searches!

#3: Manage Your Post Comments

 

You’ve written a useful post, you’ve promoted it far and wide and people are reading it. After all that effort and exposure, don’t forget to check your comments!

In the Comments section of your post, you can respond to and interact with members who are leaving feedback or starting a discussion.

Don’t forget to respond to comments on your posts!

In most cases, those who commented on my posts were people I’m not currently connected to. That means the post is getting visibility beyond my first-degree network, and yours probably will too.

Unfortunately I did see one or two spam comments when I posted, but you have the ability to hide and/or flag these.

#4: Evaluate Content Performance

 

LinkedIn immediately starts to show you the number of views, social media shares and comments your post generates. I admit that it’s exciting to see those metrics changing right before your eyes in real time!

Use your LinkedIn post metrics to determine how well your content is resonating with your audience. As you build your professional content library, compare your posts to see which ones outperformed others.

When you have a feel for what’s working for you, take some time to review the posts of your favorite official LinkedIn influencers and your competitors. Evaluate their posting schedule and which posts got the most views and engagement. Consider how you can use similar tactics for your own success.

For example, a LinkedIn influencer I follow is Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of 85 Broads and former head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. She publishes to LinkedIn about once a month.

Even though she’s a prominent thought leader in the financial services industry, she writes about universal topics that appeal to a larger audience. Below is a compilation of her most recent posts. Her article about productivity hacks clearly stands out in terms of the number of views and level of engagement.

Evaluate what your favorite influencers are writing about.

Seeing what’s working gives you an idea of what people are responding to and you may want to consider using similar topics or how-to’s that appeal to your own audience.

Learning from the LinkedIn influencers who have gone before you can help you craft a more successful content strategy of your own!

Keep Your Existing Blog!

 

It’s critical to remember that LinkedIn’s publishing platform shouldn’t serve as your content publishing hub. It’s a place to syndicate and further showcase your existing professional content from your blog.

Remember, you don’t own your LinkedIn presence or the content associated with it.
I recommend publishing the original post to your own blog first, then publishing it to your LinkedIn profile in its entirety.

You may want to vary the two posts a bit, however. Perhaps write your blog post to your specific audience or niche, and when you publish it to LinkedIn, change it to appeal to a broader audience.
I’m super-excited about this publishing opportunity on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn publishing platform is an important part of any marketer’s content strategy. I think it will be interesting to watch the network grow as an online content destination for professionals.

What do you think? Will the LinkedIn publishing platform be a game-changer? What kind of content are you publishing? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments below!

5-Step Strategy To Improve Your Facebook Engagement & Growth

Thanks to numerous Facebook changes recently, many businesses are thinking about dropping Facebook entirely. Engagement is in the toilet, and the page just isn’t growing.

Before you do, it pays to take a fresh, close look at your Facebook strategy. Often the problem lies there and has absolutely nothing to do with algorithm changes.

Here is a sneak peek at part of my evaluation processes to identify where the disconnect lies.

1. Figure Out Who Your End Buyer Is

 

When a business doesn’t really know who actually makes the purchase decision for their product or service, they don’t know who their audience is.

Without understanding that audience, odds are slim that the content being posted will resonate with them. If the target customer isn’t something a company can rattle off the top of their head, then it’s important to do a quick analysis of who has purchased their product and why.

If I am working with a security company, for example, here are the types of questions I might ask:

• Do you sell commercial or residential solutions?
• Residential -> Are most of your buyers men or women?
• Women -> Do you know what triggered their decision to improve security?
• If you were to set aside the fear tactics so common to the security industry, what kinds of things would interest them? Engage them? Build a relationship with them?

Questions that dig into buyers and their purchase decision make the foundation of your social media strategy. They tell you who you are talking to, what concerns they have, and what brought them into your sphere of influence. It gives you a basic foundation to begin understanding who your prospects might be.

Once you understand the largest segment, you can branch out into looking at smaller segments.  Then, you can start being creative with how to reach them because you understand who these people are and what motivates them.

In keeping with the security company as an example, I might create a Facebook presence around a fake “thief” that posts  stories of his/her activities.

Targeting women? Maybe it’s a cat burgler that is actually feline. Furry fun to entertain and trigger laughter while educating.

I’d use Fiverr or (preferably) a local illustrator to create some custom images with captions, if the budget allowed. Or perhaps we would create a sexy fake Sean Connery-styled James Bond who does residential burglary and corporate espionage. Have fun with it! Don’t be scary, be interesting.
(Note: These ideas are my intellectual property. Don’t steal them unless you hire me and have my permission.) 

You can’t be successful on Facebook without understanding your customers and prospects.
Once you understand who they are, you can put on your thinking cap to focus on what might interest and motivate them. It’s important to keep the niche narrow – don’t try to sell everything to everyone.
Then, forget about marketing. Start conversations. Tell stories. Fit your activity to your audience.

2. Realize They Just Don’t Care

 

Other than current customers, who make up the bulk of fans for most Facebook pages, understand that the general population doesn’t care about your brand, product or service. They care about their own needs and interests.

Most people follow very few brand pages, so giving them a compelling reason to stick around is critical.

What can you give them that they can’t find anywhere else? Education? Entertainment? Emotional reactions?

Get over any ego and assumptions that make you think they are innately interested. Your customers might care because you’ve already proven your value – which is why Facebook is a wonderful customer retention and customer service platform – but prospects? They. Just. Don’t. Care.
How are you making them care?

3. Do an Audit of Your Facebook Page

 

Now that you understand the buyer and target audience, look at your existing Facebook page. Would it appeal to them? Why or why not? Are you giving them reason to engage? Are you promoting too much and acting in YOUR interests, instead of theirs?

That’s common. Entrepreneurs and marketing professionals that think of social media as a marketing tool often lose sight of what matters. Remember: It’s not about you, it’s about being a part of your community and providing value.

Take an honest look at your page from an outsider’s perspective. Consider asking your customers/prospects what they like and don’t like about it and take their recommendations into account as you re-vamp your Page.

4. Define Your Marketing Objectives and Customer Acquisition Goals, Then Map Them to Your Facebook Strategy

 

Understanding your audience is essential because it helps you build community and engagement. But what good is that if it doesn’t lead to revenue, website traffic, or other marketing objectives? Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Common objectives include leads, traffic, reach, and sales.

Back to the security company. Say we decided the primary target audience is women homeowners purchasing residential alarm solutions. If the marketing objective is website traffic, how can your posts trigger click-throughs? If your marketing objective is building your email database, how are you giving them incentive to subscribe?

I follow the 80/20 rule – eighty percent of social media activity is entertaining, conversational and/or educational, and twenty percent is marketing about the company/product/service. All of it works to build the brand, but in different ways and always being careful not to over-promote.
After all, this is social media, not advertising.

5. Define Your Brand Attributes, Then Make Sure Your Posts Fit Them

 

Brand attributes aren’t the graphic standards you use – they are the attributes you want your company, product, or service to be known for.

What do you want to build your reputation around? Is it complicated installs? Knowledge of iPad integration? Complex computer security? Inspiring women to put safety first?

Posts should connect with these attributes and tie in with your marketing objective. It’s part of what makes you different. Unique. Worthy of interest and connection.

Identify your top 3-4 brand attributes, then connect them to your activity. Showcase these brand attributes in everything you do: your cover image, your tabs, and every post you make. Make it smack-upside-the-head obvious, so page visitors and fans don’t have to guess.

You can also include product or service attributes. These are your key differentiators on a product or service level, instead of a company level. Are you different due to uber simple control panels when everyone else offers a hot mess of complicated computers? Or your panel is a crazy simple smartphone app? Or your installation service is faster and cleaner? Then your Facebook posts would speak to those specific attributes and create conversation about it. Know what makes you different and build on it so your audience has something to connect to.

As you start integrating your attributes, some will interest your audience more than others, so don’t forget to try new ideas for your page! Make sure they fit your audience, objectives and attributes, but constantly test new ideas and monitor the results using Facebook Insights.

Putting It All Together

This is just a quick, down, and dirty overview of my basic process, but I urge you to give it a try before you delete your Facebook page.

Map out these strategies in a spreadsheet or Word document that you can refer to often and you may be able to identify a major gap that is killing your success.

6 Ways to Promote Your Business With Pinterest Places

Do you use Pinterest to promote your business?

Have you heard of Pinterest place pins?

Whether you have a storefront, products or a travel aspect to your business, consider exploring the geographic elements of Pinterest

In this article, you’ll learn six ways you can use Pinterest place pins boards to promote your business or products.

Pinterest’s new Places boards have really taken off.

How Place Pins Work

Businesses now have two ways to associate their pins with a geographic location. In addition to rich pins, Pinterest introduced Pinterest place pins in November 2013.

Place pins use Foursquare‘s location API combined with Mapbox’s map technology. Plus, if a location you want to pin doesn’t show up, you can simply add it.

Brands can create a board to focus on places in a single city or country, or a board that focuses on similar places across the globe.

This board from Outside Magazine shares places across the United States.

This tool is a dream come true for companies in the travel industry. Just check out Hotels.com‘s Hit the Slopes board of best places to ski, New York City: The Official Guide’s Free (and Almost Free) in NYC board and all of the #VXTraveler City Guides on Virgin America’s Pinterest page. Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts has a variety of place boards, showcasing everything from concierge suggestions to honeymoon destinations.

However, just about any company can think outside the box and come up with a creative way to use Pinterest place pins.

Outside Magazine created a board to share places across the United States that offer lots of outside recreation opportunities to their residents.

Use place pins not only for your locations, but to share other places that would be of interest to your followers.

How to Create a Pinterest Places Board

 

To get started, select Place Boards in the menu from the upper left-hand corner of your Pinterest profile.

The Place Boards option has been added to the main Pinterest menu.

From there, click on Create Board. As you fill in the fields, make sure you select the Add a Map option.

Be sure the Add a Map option has Yes next to it.

On the next page, start adding pins by clicking on Add a Place.

Place pin boards display with a map behind them.

This is where you assign a city location to your pin. Once you choose a city, your searches will return results for venues in that location. For example, Bonefish Grill has several locations across the nation, but only the Boise location showed up in my search.

Manage the location of your place pin by changing the city.

As you add place pins, you can change the city location at any time, which makes it easy to share multiple locations for the same vendor on one map.

Now that you know how to create a board for your place pins, let’s see how you can use them in everyday promotion efforts.

#1: Map Your Brick-and-Mortar Locations

 

How great would it be if people who found you on Pinterest knew exactly where your nearest location is?

Whether you have one location or a dozen, Pinterest place pins let you provide your customers with a visual guide to where they can find you.

Starbucks Coffee did a nice twist on this concept. They created a Store Design board and pinned the locations of their uniquely designed stores.

Starbucks’ Store Design board has pins for uniquely designed stores throughout the world.

Create a Locations board to highlight your locations in one country or around the world. Whether you want to add a unique slant, as Starbucks did, is up to you.

#2: Pin Your Clients

 

Part of positioning your brand or business is pointing toward the clients you choose to work with.
When you display your current clients on a map with Pinterest place pins, it’s easy to see how far your geographic influence reaches. You can also provide a link back to their sites so potential clients can see the companies you work with and what they do.

Create a Client board to showcase both the quantity and quality of your current clients to anyone who’s thinking of working with you in the future.

#3: Pin Ideas for Your Clients/Customers

 

Another option is to create a board with tips for your clients based on where they’re located.
Simple Skincare created a places board called Winter Skincare Around the U.S. The board has skincare tips for different climates, and illustrates the best ways for the people in those regions to use their products.

Simple Skincare has a places board with skincare tips for customers who live in different parts of the United States.

If you can add tips for customers based on the place they live, that can raise your expertise level and the value of your brand.

#4: Introduce the Team

 

Every business is made up of employees who come together and work as a team. They provide the product or service that makes your business successful.

Pinterest place pins can help your customers to get to know your team as people.
Using place pins, map the hometowns of all of your employees, alongside their favorite restaurants or shops. Better yet, create a group board with all employees and let them pin their favorite places and spaces on their own. These insights give customers a glimpse of your team members’ personalities.

People like buying from people they trust. A board featuring employees helps customers get to know your team and build that relationship.

#5: Share Your Inspiration and Process

 

Every brand or business is inspired by something. Learning about that inspiration helps people identify with you.

Tundra Restaurant Supply in Boulder, Colorado created a places board to showcase their favorite places in their state, so the restaurants they work with could get to know them better.

Tundra Restaurant Supply created a places board so they could share how much they love their state with their customers.

Customers love transparency, and using Pinterest place pins to show them all of the ins and outs of your business makes them more likely to trust you.

Use Pinterest place pins to share the locations around the world that inspire your products or services. If you own a cafe, show customers where you get your coffee beans. If you run a Chinese restaurant, tell them where your dishes originate. If other businesses work with you to create your final product, pin them too.

You can also share your whole process from start to finish. This will encourage loyalty from current customers and attract new customers.

#6: Demonstrate Your Customer Reach With a Competition

 

No matter where you’re based, chances are that your products and services are used across the country or even around the world. Let your customers tell that story!

Encourage your customers to pin pictures of your products or services from wherever they are and offer a prize to the pinner who lives farthest from your location.

A competition gives your customers a reason to share the product they bought from you. Not only will people see how popular your products are, each new pin increases your visibility.

Over to You

Pinterest is one of the top social media platforms currently out there, and it’s continually growing. There are a ton of creative ideas popping up on how to embrace new features like Pinterest place pins.

Whether it’s to showcase yourself, your employees, your clients or your partners, use these tips for inspiration on how you can use boards with Pinterest’s place pins to connect your brand to customers around the world.

What do you think? Are you using Pinterest place pins? What ideas can you share for this newest Pinterest feature? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

5 Essential Marketing Skills Every Person Should Know

Anyone involved in a business has a role to play in marketing. In today’s highly competitive world, marketing sits across every function of a business, and it’s not just down to ‘The Marketing Department.’ If you work for yourself or run a small business, sales and marketing will be as much a part of your working day as everything else that has to be done to make a profit.

Marketing can be a very complex subject, but anyone can develop a few of the core skills and see the results of their efforts. You may feel it’s something best left to the experts, but there are some essential marketing skills that can make a huge difference to your success in business.

The Pareto Principle (80/20 rule)

1. Understand the 80/20 Rule

Everyone’s heard of the 80/20 Rule, but you may not realise how important it is in the world of marketing. Also known as Pareto’s Principle, in business the rule tells us that eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of your customers. The actual percentages may vary, but essentially it means that you have to recognise where your profits come from and specifically target those customers. Your marketing and advertising budget should take account of this, or you will be wasting time and effort.

2. Customer Segmentation

Taking the 80/20 Rule a step further, you should understand the different types of customers you deal with and tailor your approach to them. There are hundreds of ways you can segment customers, and only you can decide which is right for your business. For example, you could segment customers based on their age, how they trade with you, their average monthly order, or even their geographical location. Once you have segmented your customers into groups, you can develop strategies for the best way to deal with them.

3. Marketing Communications

Communication is everything in marketing. If you can’t get your messages out to an audience, your business will shrivel and die. Marketing communications is about understanding the needs of your audience and finding the best way to talk to them. It may be a mix of face to face visits, email marketing, newsletters and press advertising, or it could be something far more simple. Good marketing communications tell a story and use emotion and personal examples to stimulate interest.

4. How to Make Your Company Stand Out

Most markets are saturated with similar products and services, and the way to beat the competition is to make your company stand out. A very small difference could put you streets ahead. The obvious approach is to be the cheapest, but customers are more sophisticated nowadays, and other strategies can work better. Take a look at successful companies like Apple, and consider what makes them stand out from the competition.

5. Social Media Marketing

Just a couple of years ago social media marketing was seen as a passing fad. Sites and services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are now part daily life, and they are incredibly powerful marketing tools if used in the right way. Social media can be used to identify and market to very specific customer groups for very little cost. Sites like Facebook allow you to develop conversations with customers and prospects, and you can capture feedback and ideas in an instant. Social media allow you to develop your company’s brand and to establish yourself as an expert in unique and interesting ways.

Technology and the way we do business has changed beyond recognition over the past decade, and marketing has had to adapt at a rapid pace. Traditional marketing skills still have value, but the modern marketer has to develop new skills to respond to change.

6 Ways Twitter Chats Can Help You Connect With Your Audience

Is your Twitter marketing working?

Are you trying to reach a wider audience and generate leads?

Twitter chats are a great way to boost your marketing results.

In this article you’ll discover six ways Twitter chats can help you connect with a larger audience and enhance brand awareness.

Why Twitter Chats?

Most marketers use Twitter to promote content, build brand awareness and interact with followers. Overall, it works pretty well. But what if you could turbo-charge those efforts?

Twitter chats are open, moderated conversations that use a relevant hashtag for a certain topic (e.g., #blogchat or #MMchat for Marketer Monday).

Many chat participants use services like Twubs or Hashtags.org to filter conversations based on the chat hashtag so they can easily follow the conversation.

Tools like Twubs filter conversations based on hashtags.

Including a regular Twitter chat in your marketing tactics helps you reach your current followers and their followers. A successful chat can introduce you to hundreds of potential leads.

Below I show you six ways Twitter chats can bring value to your followers and position you as a thought leader.

#1: Crowdsource Content Ideas

Are you looking for content ideas? Or deciding what type of ebook to offer list subscribers? Or maybe wondering what topic your next webinar should tackle?

A Twitter chat can help you answer those questions. Whether you’re looking for input on a project or wondering what your customers are looking for, chats are an easy way to gather information and opinions from a lot of people at one time.

The New England Music Association has an interesting way of using chats to keep their members in the loop. They choose their annual conference themes by crowdsourcing via a Twitter chat. They even host a public Google document to keep track of ideas.

You can apply crowdsourcing to any aspect of your marketing needs.

Crowdsourcing can also help you define what problems your customers need to solve. Ask chat attendees what they need or want, and while you have their attention, delve deeper and ask them to clarify their answers or give you examples.

Take notes, integrate their ideas and needs into your efforts, and then give them what they asked for.

#2: Connect With New Leads

Want to find new leads? Make yourself useful. Answer questions, provide good information and engage with your followers. Chances are, you’re already doing this across platforms, right? Use a Twitter chat to amplify that value.

With a little promotion and buzz around your upcoming Twitter chat, you’ll have the chance to reach an even bigger audience interested in your product, service or information.

To attract those new leads, you can host a fun Twitter chat with a general theme, include a giveaway or choose a topic that tackles a common problem and showcases your expertise. Not sure which topic is best? Crowdsource!

Make sure people know about your upcoming Twitter chat!

Follow up with chat attendees after the event and ask them how you can be of service. Engaging with those folks can cultivate great business relationships.

#3: Build Your Social Reach

Social proof is one of the highest compliments you can receive from your followers.
When a fan shares your information or product with a friend, they’re giving it their seal of approval. It’s very likely those friends will consider that recommendation when they’re ready to buy.

A successful Twitter chat attracts a large group of people whose followers are watching them engage with you. Maybe they’ll take the hint and join in too. It’s a great way to leverage your existing followers.

Twitter chats can reach far beyond your existing followers.

#4: Create Community With Live Tweets

You can’t attend every in-person event you want to, and neither can your fans. Twitter chats are a way to bring everyone together as if they’re there.

If you’re hosting or attending the in-person event, try live tweeting (or having someone do it for you). Invite your fans to follow the hashtag and share their ideas and opinions about the topic at hand.

Many conferences project real-time tweets onto a screen so all attendees can see the Twitter conversation and join in if they like.

Live tweeting shares the conference vibe with everyone, even if they can’t attend.

#5: Track Your Successes

As a marketer, you already know the importance of analytics. Plan to track your Twitter chat successes from day one. When you know how popular your guests, topics, questions, interactions and hashtag are, you can determine what resonates with your followers.

A service like TweetReach helps you keep track of reach, impressions, tweets and contributors. You’ll know who saw your tweets and who shared or retweeted your information.

Evaluating the data over time gives you a good idea of which chat topics are most successful and what ideas are most important to participants. You can use that information to create relevant follow-up content.

TweetReach reports on several aspects of your chats so you can track what’s popular with your audience.

#6: Learn More About Your Industry

Because marketers are so busy, it’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day work and miss opportunities to chat with your peers about the industry you work in and any relevant news.

An industry Twitter chat serves as a kind of online professional meeting. Participating in these specialized chats is another way to network, both locally and even internationally, and expand your circle of contacts.

Industry chats are also a place where you can discover and discuss any debates or “holes” in the industry. These kinds of chats keep marketers on their toes and up to date with the latest trends.

Meet up (virtually) with colleagues around the world to discuss what’s happening in your field.

Conclusion

If you’re already using Twitter as a marketing channel, adding in a regularly scheduled Twitter chat can help you build brand awareness.

Just as you would with your regular content, create an editorial calendar for your Twitter chats, then promote the topics, dates and times to ensure a great turnout. The more value you offer, the more the community seeks you out.

Use your Twitter chat feedback to create the content your audience wants, find qualified leads and stay up to date on industry trends.

What do you think? Does your company host a regular Twitter chat? Share your experience and thoughts in the comments!

What social media should your business use?

In social media there is only one rule: there is no rule. So of course, I could tell you that you should be on all networks. However, who has the time to run 78 different social networks? So you have to make a choice.

A study from LinkedIn claims that people operate differently on their personal networks versus their professional ones, but this premise isn’t accurate. Why?  There are no such things as personal and professional networks, only networks that you use in different ways. As a business, it’s critical to remember this because the types of conversations and interactions need to be more personal in social communities.

So which network do you choose? Well, if you want to go to college, you have to go to elementary school first. It’s the same thing with social networks. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the elementary school for social media. They’re like your ABCs. So when you’re ready to move past the ABCs, there are three other social networks that you might want to consider.

First, Google +. If you think that Google + is just a Facebook owned by Google, let me tell you that you are not totally wrong. For now. However, Google said recently in Chicago that Google + is actually the fastest growing social network. In June 2012 there were 425 million Gmail accounts, more than 200 million Google + accounts with 100 million active users in September 2012.

In addition to this, there are over 5 billion “+1” per day. It’s the fastest global social share button in history. Moreover, if someone likes a brand in your Google + circles and you’re logged into Google, that brand will rise to top of your search. So, I hope you understand the need for your business to share content (videos, photos, text…) on Google +.

Second, Pinterest. Yes really. You want me to post pictures? Yes, I want you to post pictures. Content is king (or a prince at least). The interesting thing with Pinterest is that it’s very different from all other networks. The layout is different andthe communities are different so the use case is going to be different. It’s a great tool to try new things with your communities.

If you run a design agency, a fashion line or a photo agency, of course Pinterest is a natural fit, but in reality Pinterest works for virtually any business. Take, for example, a business that creates kitchen tools. The business can create a Pinterest board showing people using their products at home, and another board showing the food they prepared. This is powerful marketing! The Inside Network’s AppData reminds us that almost 98% of Pinterest’s fans on Facebook are women. Take this opportunity to show the creative side of your business and think outside of the box!

Last but not least: Quora. For almost two years now, I’ve been using Quora. For those who don’t know this network, Quora is a Q&A social network that is really simple to use. You enter a certain number of centers of interest, the platform links them together and shows you a list of questions that people have asked in relation to your centers of interest. You’re free to answer a question or just look at other people’s responses. It’s a great tool for personal use, and frequently better than Wikipedia since the people who answer are generally professionals. This can be really useful for your business in many different ways. You can see who is asking questions about your company, who answers the questions (maybe find some new influencers), see what others say about your business and much more. Keep in mind that the questions you ask and the answers you give, will all be listed on your profile page. So be sure that you know what you’re talking about in case recruiters are looking for new credible assets on the network…

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest and Quora are different networks with different use cases and different communities. The next steps are up to you. Please feel free to join this conversation at https://twitter.com/AntoineXSr

18 Social Media SEO Resources to Improve Your Search Ranking

Do you know how social media impacts SEO?

Are your own search and social efforts aligned?

For many marketers, it’s not always clear how social media impacts search engine optimization.
In this article you’ll find numerous resources to help you understand how social media SEO works.

Why Social Media SEO?

It’s not enough to have a popular website with good content anymore. If you want better search engine results for your business, it’s time to look at how social media influences those results.

It used to be that SEO revolved around two things: using the right keywords, and the number of authoritative sites that linked back to your content via inbound links.

Then social media came along and changed everything.

Search engines have begun to incorporate social signals (Facebook likes, retweets, +1s and so on) to inform their search results.

The following articles dig a little deeper and explain what you need to do to make sure you succeed at social media and SEO.

6 Reasons Social Media Is Critical to Your SEO: If you need more clarity on how SEO and social work together, Stephanie Frasco explains on Social Media Today that the old days of website marketing are over and Google has found a newer, smarter way to measure the popularity of your website—social media.

How to Succeed at SEO With Social Media Marketing: On ExactTarget Amanda Nelson likens SEO and social media to peanut butter and jelly, the idea being that the two need each other to succeed. Dig in and enjoy the nuggets of wisdom and some best practices shared in a conversation between Amanda and her guest, Ray Grieselhuber.

SEO and social media go together.

Now that you know why it’s important, let’s get down to business and talk about how you can align both your social and SEO efforts. Here are five best practices for social media SEO:

#1: Publish High-Quality Content

You’ll hear it over and over because it’s true: “Content is king, and everything else is gravy!” If you can get your content right, you’ll have set a strong foundation for SEO success. Here are some posts to get you thinking in the right direction.

Why Content Is Part of a Smart SEO Strategy: Google continues to push a quality-over-quantity approach to drive search traffic to a website. In this post on Search Engine Journal, Sujan Patel explains why quality content is important to SEO and how your strategy must go beyond keyword optimization and link-building.

Quality content is important to your SEO.

How to Write So Google Loves You (Easier Than You Think!): Do you often wonder whether you should be writing for people or for search engines? Well, this excellent post from Nicholas Whitmore instructs you to just “write how you speak“—and with good reason. Check it out!

#2: Make Social Sharing Easy

Getting people to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and other networks connects your brand to the wider social web, which allows your message to potentially reach thousands of prospects. The following posts explain how to get your content shared easily and quickly.

How to Customize Your Social Share Buttons for Increased Traffic: In this helpful how-to Social Media Examiner post, Angie Pascale walks you through the process of pre-populating social media share buttons for Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Facebook with links to your own website.

6 Ways to Create Content Your Readers Will Share: This short and sweet post by Martin Lieberman of Constant Contact reminds us that the holy grail of social media is not likes, but shares and retweets. Social sharing is the tech version of word-of-mouth marketing that drives new business for a brand.

Social sharing affects your SEO.

Social Sharing: How to Inspire Fans to Share Your Stories: In this Social Media Examiner podcast, Simon Mainwaring explains how to tap into the power of your fans to spread your stories. One important lesson he shares is that brands have to stop talking about themselves and start talking about their customers.

600+ Places to Share Your Content and GET MORE Traffic: This is priceless! After you’ve hit the Publish button on your blog, you’re not done. This ultimate “power list” compiled by Kim Roach shows you 600 different places where you can distribute your posts to reach an even wider audience.

Distribute your posts to drive more traffic.

The Essential Guide to Content Sharing: Asking people to share your content is a simple way to boost your page traffic. Ian Cleary of RazorSocial shares a collection of social media “super tools” that make it incredibly easy to promote your content and reach new audiences.

#3: Boost Your Images and Profiles

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you know that images can be a powerful SEO magnet. The problem is, they’re often overlooked in favor of written content. This is a big mistake. These articles explain how images impact SEO and the different areas of image optimization that you need to focus on.

3 Ways to Optimize Images for Search, Social Media & User Experience: Ashley Zeckman of TopRank Blog explains how images can have a big impact on visibility in search engines. Her actionable tips on how to make your images important searchable assets are a must-read!

5 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Perfectly Optimized Images: Ann Smarty provides an impressive list of absolutely must-have WordPress plugins to optimize blog images and see your traffic spike. It’s got a lot of important details, but thankfully the screenshots make it easy to follow along.

WordPress has plugins that help you optimize your images.

SEO Boost Your Social Media Profiles: Alex Chris shares how to optimize social media profiles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest for more brand exposure. The benefit of doing this is that more people will be able to find your profile, connect with you and ultimately visit your website. Sweet!

#4: Don’t Forget Authorship Metadata (Google+)

One of the most important features of Google+ is authorship. Simply put, this feature allows the author’s picture to appear next to search results of content they have created. The following posts explain how Google authorship impacts content creators and SEO.

Google Authorship: The Future of Your SEO Is You!: Over at Search Engine Journal, Bernadette Coleman reminds us how important it is to embrace author rank. With Google authorship, you can improve your search ranking and brand yourself as a thought leader in your field. And all you have to do is add a face to your work!

Google Authorship will improve your search ranking.

How to Add Google Author Tags to Your Blog for Improved Search Results: In this Social Media Examiner article, Don Power asks, “Does Google know you’re the author of the content you publish?” A lot of bloggers don’t know how to answer that question, so if you’re one of them, you need to read all about it here!

Getting Authorship to Work: A Moz.com Case Study: What can you do if you have trouble getting Authorship to work smoothly on your blog? Ruth Burr from MOZ, shares how her company navigated several hiccups to successfully integrate Authorship into Moz.com, so you can troubleshoot your own installation.

Troubleshoot any problems you have with Google Authorship.

#5: Measure Social Media Performance

Whatever your goal, measure! Measuring and analyzing your efforts are key to having effective SEO tactics. When you track and analyze what’s working, you can focus on the things that matter. These very instructive posts will start you off on the right foot!

Measuring What Matters in Social Media: There are many reasons your brand uses social media in the first place—increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving sales and many more. The only way to know whether you’re achieving those goals is to measure them. Unfortunately, as Tania Yuki of ComScore observes, many brands get fixated on measuring the wrong things.

Measure the metrics that relate to your goals.

How to Measure Your Social Media Traffic Using Google Analytics: Liz Lockard is spot-on with her comprehensive instructions for using Google analytics to track the impact of your social media traffic. Having this information helps you know where to focus your efforts in social media!

How to Measure and Report Social SEO Metrics: Measuring social media is tricky enough, but measuring the impact of your social media efforts on SEO can be even more mind-boggling.

Thankfully, Clayburn Griffin has you covered in this informative post on Raventools whose key message is, “Pay attention to the data. It will tell you what to do.”

What do you think? Do you have other tips and tactics to add to this list? Please share and link up additional resources in the comment box below.

Three tricks get out of the social weeds

Q1 is such a great time of year for me. I am so full of energy. Ready to tackle new challenges. I am full of hopes of new customers, plans to connect with them and strategies to engage with them. So hopeful. So hopeful, indeed. It isn’t until about midway through Q1 that I start to notice that as a group, we tend to get mired in the weeds and details. Sifting through content calendars, blog posts, social updates and Twitter responses. We became very busy with how things are worded and legal approvals. And before the smell of spring is in the air, we are so standing so close to the proverbial tree, staring so intently that we are getting a bark imprint on our face.
It is so hard to not get mired down in the weeds of all of the details of marketing a product or service. We have goals and directives to meet. Lead generation campaigns to launch, marketing automation branches to define. Emails to write. But we will never meet any of our directives or goals if we are standing right up on top of the tree.
We need to remember the forest of customers. It is the customer that makes achieving those goals and directives possible. Because when we step away from the tree and the minutia of delivering marketing, we are able to see better where we can add value to the customer AND meet our goals. The bark of the tree is your brand. The forest is where your brand answers a consumer need and if we are busy with the tree all the time, we will miss the opportunities of the forest.
So, here are three ways for you to step away from the bark:

Hear her.

While you are busy reading posts about your brand, it is very easy to only hear your brand name. When you read it again, remove your brand from the comment and really hear her. What is she saying? Does she need answers? Is she comparing you to others? When you really hear her without the burdens of your brand, you can begin to form an understanding what she needs. When you hear her and understand her, you can give her information and tools to be successful. That is if you have those tools or that information. If you don’t, you now know what you need to do to help her and make her an advocate for you.

Stop marketing…just for a second.

Marketing is selling, really. Maybe soft selling, but it is part of the funnel. And when we are our most honest, we admit, people do not like being sold to very much. When we are in the weeds, we are focused on driving sales, or leads, or engagement. Basically, we are trying to get other people to do something they would not naturally do. And when you’re in the weeds, that’s what it is, but, when you stop marketing for a second, you can see the forest for the opportunity it holds and can see ways you might be able to add value. Adding value is selling today and it works. When you’re in the weeds, stop marketing and start looking for ways to be a helpful resource to her. People like helpful. They buy from helpful.

Take off your brand hat

When I am in the weeds with some marketing project and I am totally stuck, I ask myself would I do/use/buy/click/register? If the answer is “no”, I need to revisit the strategy as a person, not a marketer. I think about what I would need in this product and how I would use it and what I would pay for it. It is a good starting point, but in order to do this, you have to remove your brand hat because that clouds the judgment a little. If you are unable to do this, call your best friend or mom and ask them. They can give you some insights that you might not otherwise get.
Too frequently we are so close to the brand tree bark that we forget that we need to meet a consumer need and if we are not meeting that need, the brand will languish. Being a nimble marketer is important and if you can remember to get out of the weeds every now and then, we will see greater success for our brands.

Is 2014 the Year of Google+?

We’re not the sort of people to ever suggest placing all your eggs in one basket; however we will hedge our bets and suggest Google+ is going to be bigger than it’s ever been in 2014.
With the arrival of Hummingbird many believe that 2014 is going to be the year that content marketing comes truly alive and will be the pivotal part of the marketing equation. Something we believe should be of note is that Google+ is going to be there every step of the way.

Google+ may have seemed a little underwhelming until now; however all is not as it seems. With over 340m active monthly users the site is far from a blip in the social media ocean – in fact it’s the second largest social media network. In fact, it’s potentially a huge wave – no Google pun intended – and 2014 may be its big year.
So, what do we base this on and what should we prepare to expect?

Pushing it as a Social Media Force

Google spent 2013 trying to push Google+ into the main stream in every which way possible. From switching over the YouTube commenting platform to Google+, to really pushing Authorship among marketers and websites, to even adding Hangouts to its latest version of  Android as an all-inclusive messaging service – Google’s been upping its promotion of the site.
Needless to say we expect more of this pushing and plugging of the site in 2014 as Google tries to place its social network at the fore. Expect, them to use mobile phone search to aid this somewhat in the coming year.

Local SEO AND Mobile

Googles always been quite strong in the local SEO area and has always included it as a component. A lot of Google’s services, including most notably in this example, Google Places or Google+ Local as it’s now known are Google+ orientated.
The reward for inclusion here is obvious – higher rankings in local mobile searches – something that Google has a 90% market share in – far higher than its desktop search portion. As we’re all well aware mobile search user numbers are going nowhere but upwards – so expect this part of Google’s strategy to be increasingly well-honed in the coming year.

Promoted Posts

Google+ is now in the BETA stage of promoted posts and it looks like it’s going to go the way of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and begin charging for posting.

Authorship

Authorship has been a factor in the back of marketer’s minds for almost three years now. Over that time Google has constantly amped up the pressure on people to utilise it. We expect to see this focus to increase even further in the coming period.
Google Authorship offers a lot as it allows you to link your content to your profile and your image to sit proudly beside your work. For your content it means a better chance of it being seen and also easier sharing. It also boosts your authority on a specific matter – something that’s in no way any harm.

Community Appeal

One of the big Google+ capacities and one that’s always been a prominent area have been the site’s communities.
Due to the nature of people that tend to use the site and also its close ties with other Google tools, G+ has always had strong communities. The year 2014 looks like a year of strong growth and interaction.
So, if you have a business in a specific niche or on a niche subject matter – the options for growth on Google+ are notable and should certainly be examined.
Google+ may not ever overtake Facebook, or might never have the mass appeal of Twitter, however with each year past it’s gathered steam and also popularity exponentially and it seems in 2014 this expansion will continue – so utilise it and reap the benefits.

3 Smart Ways to Amplify Your Online Customer Service

Customer service is perhaps the most important element of online business because poor human interaction can deter individuals from completing the transaction. The secret to customer service really does come down to treating others with respect, knowing the subject.


For online business owners the real trouble comes when they wish to interact with their customers and leads to provide valuable support. The use of telephone and email simply aren’t enough for the majority of online shoppers, which is why this article presents three options for amplifying the experience through smart online choices.



1. Support Ticket Systems & Help Desks


The software in this category generally provides a variety of helpfulness to the customer:
A knowledge base where customers (and leads) can post questions and receive answers
A ticketing system that can import inquiries from multiple locations and devices
A managerial back end to view reports, performance, and feedback


These items are generally billed per month or by agent (sometimes both), but in terms of costs it’s a very safe bet when it comes to offering robust solutions for online customer service.
2. Remote Access & Support


Remote access software is another fine choice for providing business support. This type of software often includes the ability to hold conference calls via audio and video, which is often used to tutor customers about their new purchase (which, depending on the businesses’ creativity, can apply to any physical or digital product).


Features that make this form of customer service so attractive include:
The low cost of implementation and ease-of-access for users and customers
Remote access to a computer removes the need to fully train the client/customer
Online presentations presents an opportunity to upsell products and services


The ability to take control of the computer, for the user, allows your support specialists get right to the thick of the problem, which not only gets the user well upon their way but doesn’t force them to sit on the phone trying to figure out what the representative meant (when they’re not attuned to technical terminology).
3. Live Chat & Online Video


The third in our list of customer service options is one that shouldn’t be too unfamiliar — live chat. But there may be some developments to this platforms you haven’t quite known about over these last few years.


Newer versions of live chat may now come packaged with:
Multi-user sessions, logging, and file transfer per customer
Online video chat in place of traditional chat messaging
VOIP communication via built-in hardware on both ends of the conversation


There are many inherent benefits of expanding the technological features of live chat. The most visible of these benefits is the fact that having a face-to-face, even if it’s through the use of online video, helps to build trust because the customers are directly interacting with the business.


Live Help also presents an opportunity to increase conversions. A simple coupon code or link to a landing page offering one before the customer leaves (or done so through a follow up call or email pulled from the chat logs and contact information) is an easy way to grab the low hanging fruit for the business.
Conclusion


In all, if you feel your online business is lacking in customer support it may not be your representatives. The issue may be that they aren’t well equipped with the modern resources to provide the best possible experience for those sending inquiries.


Consider the three options for your business. Explore the rich features of a help desk. Implement remote accessing software to aid in tech. Upgrade the outdated live chat system. Don’t miss out on another opportunity to satisfy your customers.


Image Credit: Dell Inc.

OVERCOMING SKEPTICISM ON SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS AND VINE

Lots of brands pitch us at Social Media Explorer to talk about the nifty social media campaigns they’re launching. Most pitches make me sick to my stomach for a variety of reasons. The majority because your plan doesn’t interest me. Your success does. Pitch me after the thing is over and you can share some success metrics.


Sometimes its because the campaign premise is disingenuous or just a spin on advertising applied in the social space. And yes, sometimes its because the PR person or firm in question is spam-tastic or pitches me something I’d never write about in the first place.

So I sat Sunday looking over material aboutApplebee’s new social media-driven campaignaround it’s new 550 Calories Menu, trying to find a reason to write about it. The pitch was relevant and handled nicely, I happen to know Jill McFarland, Applebee’s Director of Social Media (though she wasn’t the person who pitched me), and I’ve always liked Applebee’s because a local franchisee was a big sponsor of a college athletics program I worked for once. On the surface, I thought, “It’s just another plan, not success,” but the more I looked at it, the more I realized Applebee’s was doing something neat.

The whole premise of social media, at least from a marketing perspective, is to engage and empower your customers or fans to help fuel a word-of-mouth passion for your brand. By listening to the conversation, engaging your online voices and empowering them to contribute in ways, small and large, you become a “social” brand. Applebee’s 550 Calorie Campaign is set to do all of that in a compelling, integrated way.

Before I go any further, I’m issuing a demand to Applebee’s right now: We want to see success metrics on the back-end of this. Within three months, I want to be able to share what this effort did with the SME audience. I’m going out on a limb with this post and am writing against my standing attitude toward social media campaigns, but I’ll trust that you’ll understand that and feed us some measures of success soon! (My audience expects it by now.)

The campaign is simple, but smart. During the Golden Globes, the restaurant chain will air a television commercial (with relevant support and buzz-building on social channels in tow) that will ask fans to submit Vine videos about the 550 Calorie Menu using the hashtag #BeeFamous. Two winners will have their Vines featured in Applebee’s commercials that will air in February. So they’re leveraging traditional media to drive people to social channels, encouraging participation and engagement in an activity that fuels future traditional media while rewarding fans with opportunities for exposure.

As you may know from my first and only Vine, I’ve not been high on the channel much.

There are already a couple of interesting submissions. This one’s my favorite so far.





No, this type of contest isn’t new. Leveraging Vine in clever ways isn’t either. But the coordination of it all, plus the front- and back-end integration of traditional advertising makes it music to my ears. Most brands would launch a Vine contest like this and only tell people about it on Vine or perhaps its Twitter and Facebook channels. Applebee’s knows social media isn’t a place where if you build it, they will come. It’s a place where if you build it, then promote the living crap out of it, they might. Kudos to them for getting that

Having run a video/commercial contest before, I can at least throw out some level of expectation. For a 30- to 60-second commercial contest, you can expect between 500 and 1000 entries, depending on the size of your audience, the appeal of the prize and how much you’re willing to spend to promote it. For Vine? I’m guessing about the same, if not a bit more. While the 6-second format makes it far easier, to come up with a submission-worthy Vine, you’ve got to be fairly creative. More importantly, however, is the online buzz generated by the effort. I’d be happy with 250 entries if 10X the normal amount of online buzz about the restaurant happens as a result of people talking about it.

Either way, I’m confident we’ll know how it goes at some point. If not, I know where Jill lives. Heh.

What do you think about the effort? Cheesy? Effective? As always, the comments are yours.