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Social Media Marketing

January 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this – you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good – let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

  • There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
  • One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
  • There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
  • At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
  • Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
  • It’s estimated that there are 6 – 10 million global users on Twitter.
  • Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?

Filed Under: Buzz Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
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Social Media Cliques

December 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Social media cliques exist.  Will you dare to be different?

I’m a huge proponent of social media and believe that it’s a fantastic way to not only create relationships with potential customers, but to also grow your personal relationship circle.

What I’ve noticed recently is the cliques that exist in social media. It’s almost as if we’ve entered high school again. The last few days I’ve taken some time to watch some of the most prominent “thought leaders” in social media – stalk them if you will.

There are a few that I watched that interact and engage with their followers and then there are others that seldom reply unless it benefits them. What’s even more interesting is watching the followers of these thought leaders. They often treat these thought leaders as celebrities, agreeing with everything that’s said, retweeting, praising, and almost doing a digital worship dance. If someone disagrees with a thought leader, they are nearly tackled in the digital stream, so very rarely do you see someone stand up and state their own thought or opinion due to the fear of being attacked personally.

What I think is missing is that we have so many people “trying” to be like established “thought leaders” that they in return are not being themselves. I hope in the upcoming year that more people will stand out with their own voice and worry less about being accepted and more about engagement and creating their own relationships as well as their own following.

I think it’s important to remember that the social media “thought leaders” ended up there because they took the time to engage and interact. They voiced opinions that may have not been popular and were willing to stand their ground when necessary. They’re informative and most of them have their own sense of humor that is reflected. A few of my favorites include Chris Brogan, Scott Stratten and of course Gary Vaynerchuk. They are “thought leaders” because they are not only willing to share information, but they are also willing to be authentic and real and put themselves out there. I think they will all agree that’s how they got started on the path that has lead them to where they are today.

I have a challenge for you when it comes to social media in 2010, be yourself. Don’t try to mimic the popular crowd but rather let your personality shine. That means that people may not always agree with you. It means that at first it might be a little scary to stand up for what you believe in, but in the long run it will be worth it. Be willing to step outside the cliques and conform less. You never know you just might be the next thought leader that thousands are following and listening to. Dare to stand out from the crowd.

Filed Under: Smalltalk / Ramblings, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
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Social Media is NOT New

December 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Want the truth? Social media marketing is new, but social media is not new. That’s right – it’s been around for years, just not in a platform that was easy to access or use.

In 1998 I wrote for The Mining Company (you probably now known them as About.com) on the topic of Internet Conferencing, or what I like to call Internet communication.

We’ve been communicating online with other people for over a decade. I had even created a directory of acronym and I know it’s surprising but we used acronym like LOL, ROFL, ROFLMAPIMP, and even BRB – amazing isn’t it? We’ve used bulletin boards, chat rooms, and instant messaging.  However, back then when you used those tools you were considered to be a “geek.” After all who is going to chat online with people they don’t know – that’s just creepy, right?  Wrong, millions are doing it today and we’ve just called it “social media.”

I always find it rather humorous to see people react to this phenomenon of social media and in the back of my mind I think back of when I used to teach people how to use the tools to communicate online using tools other than email. Now social media has become “socially acceptable” and there are millions who use this medium daily – thinking it’s new.

We’ve even started creating lists and awards – lists of the most influential social media personalities, awards to those with the most tweet, and the media swarms these outlets to find new writers, speakers and even performers.

Now, I will admit that back in the day it was not easy for those who marketed to get in and share information about their products or services and new social media networks have made that possible. I will also admit that back in 1998 you couldn’t get “social” on your cell phone – but to say social media is new is to forget the history of where it came from – it has matured but it is not new.

I just wonder how many of you that use social media today would admit that truthfully you were intrigued by the geekdom of chat, bulletin boards and instant messaging a decade ago. Were you?

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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