Cathy, a small business owner, spent a lot of money on the front end of a social media campaign for her bakery. She set out to incrementally build her following on Facebook, Twitter and her blog. She slowly built a following with her in-store business as well as her distribution nationally. She carefully crafted flyers to put in boxes, an email campaign and newsletters. Her followers steadily grew until she hit a plateau. She wondered why it took so much effort to build her following, just for her drop out rate to steadily increase. What Cathy didn’t realize is while it’s important to build a following on social media sites, it’s just as important to keep that following engaged.

In order to keep your customers engaged, you must create an emotional bond in order to keep their attention.  The average customer is exposed to hundreds of messages everyday on their computer, on their phones and on TV. They have become artificially attention deficit disordered, and that doesn’t help your advertising brand. In order to be successful in the social media market you must engage the customer. Cathy can do this by turning to the creative spirit of the company and think outside the box using the following strategies:

1)      Create great content. If Cathy posted interesting antidotes about the history of certain desserts or the story behind a certain dessert, it is sure to create more buzz. If you have a consulting business, talk about some of the best ways to move a customer’s business forward in a down economy.

2)      Consider adding video. The average consumer responds to video better than written content. If Cathy showed a video of the bakery making their new three layered rainbow colored cake, that is more engaging for her followers than the average post. Rick’s auto mechanic shop could post video on how to look for seals corroding. The options are endless.

3)      Add humor to get the customers laughing. If an employee turns the mixer on high accidentally and splatters cake batter all over the place, snap a picture and post it across your social media network. If you are an accountant, you may post the top 10 funniest tax excuses. If you are an author, have some friends act out a funny scene in your book.

4)      Look at your competition. Look for the top 10 competitors that you have in social media. Keep an eye on what they are posting and how many followers they have.  Then develop your content in a more interesting and out of the box way from what they are doing. Do it faster, more cleaver and better.

5)      Look for other companies that are a good fit to team up with. Make an agreement to swap content on each other sites so that you can take advantage of co-marketing. This could be another manufacturer or service that complements your business. Take advantage of the communities that have already been built and cross-pollinate them through your posts.

6)      Look to younger employees in your company that may be on the pulse of social media. Put them in charge of reporting to you once a week about what the buzz is in the social media realm. Have them come up with different ideas, promotions or creative posts of interest and test them out in the market.

All of the content-rich aspects of social media will attract, but more importantly keep, your customers watching your brand grow. Standing out in the market place is becoming even more important as competition is always knocking at the social media door. Do it better, be more nimble and you will catch your customers sticking around to see what is next.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Genae Girard is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. She is the founder of www.BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com, an online social media tribe of over 23,000 breast cancer survivors and regularly speaks on the topics of women in leadership and building a tribe. She is also the author of “Off the Rack: Chronicles of a Thirty-Something, Single, Breast Cancer Survivor.” For inquiries, email: info@BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com or call 512-796-1618.

Like the TV commercials say, “Free is better.” The only problem with the Internet is that it’s not always free, and sometimes the price can be steeper than you’d ever want to pay.

That’s the warning offered from Todd Drowlette, Chairman of classified listing site Move That Block (www.movethatblock.com). Drowlette said that his research into the consumer-to-consumer advertising space on the Internet revealed a wide variety of practices that exist for the sole purpose of deceiving the consumer.

“We all tend to have faith in the ‘truth in advertising’ laws protecting us from bait and switch scams,” Drowlette said. “The problem is that the Internet is so saturated with bait and switch sites, the government would never have enough resources to prosecute them all. So, it’s really up to consumers to beware and be aware of the kinds of sites that are out to get their money, get their email addresses or just flat out rip them off.”

His tips include:

• Free or Premium – Before signing up with a listing site, surf it carefully to ensure that all their user listings are free. It’s common for them to charge companies for display ads and banner, but that’s only one of their revenue models. Many sites advertise free user listings, but in reality, only the first one is free and only after you sign up for a paid membership. Make sure you understand exactly what you will be getting for free before you sign up.

• Credit Card for ID Purposes – Some sites will ask for your credit card information to determine that you are of legal age to place an ad. Don’t believe it. If someone wants your credit card information, it’s because they want your money, not your ID. In some cases, you’ll find an unauthorized charge on your card, but because you didn’t read the fine print when you signed up, it’s impossible to get the charge reversed.

• The Fine Print – When you register on a classifieds or pay-to-use site, don’t just click through all the registration procedures. Each click constitutes an agreement with the site, so read the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies carefully. This is not just fine print. These documents spell out your legal rights, and the site you’re visiting is counting on the fact you won’t read them. In addition, the privacy policy spells out whether they will sell your email address to spammers once you sign up. Sure, the ads are free, but you’re actually paying with your email address and personal information, which may be sold to spammers and other promotional companies who will inundate you with junk mail.

• Free to Post – Sure, it might be free to post, but that may be all you can do. Many sites use that as the come-on, and then advise you that only premium (paid) members can see your listing, or that you cannot get responses until you pay for a premium membership yourself. Make sure everything is free before you post. After all, what’s the point of posting if you can’t communicate with anyone who sees it?

About Todd Drowlette

Todd Drowlette began his entrepreneurial career at age 11 with a morning paper route in the Canadian border town of Malone, New York.  In 2003, he went on to graduate from Siena College with high honors before becoming a member of Siena College’s Associate Board of Trustees. In 2010, Todd authored the book “Everything I Needed to Know About Real Estate, I Learned on my Paper Route.”  He has spent the last four years running IKON Realty Group, LLC, one of the country’s premier boutique commercial real estate firms, specializing in retail real estate.  Todd’s firm has represented some of the nation’s largest property owners and tenants. It was from this career that the idea emerged to create the world’s first premium quality, free-to-post and search site, MoveThatBlock.com.

But as the days and weeks progress, they ease back into their lives and that mountaintop high fades away. So we designed this section

of the curriculum to sustain that feeling and encourage action. To keep the movement, well, moving. The program’s success is not

at the headquarters of the company; it takes place in small towns and big towns, face – to – face, all across the country. That’s where it

has to live and breathe: on a local level. That’s the lifeblood of a movement. The curriculum for Best Buy’s Mi11 movement followed the

same outline but was devised to speak the language of people who were passionate about helping others find their “music inside.”

The training started out with a list of introspective questions, such as “ If you could bring three foods with you to a desert island

to eat for the rest of your life, what would they be? ” That led to more revealing questions, like the kind of books

participants love and which movies have influenced them. Then we go even deeper. For example, we’d present them with an object and

ask them the first memory that comes up from their childhood — all to help them remember and then share with the others who they

are as persons and what makes them tick. The result? At the end of the first day together — even though You’ve  just met these people that

you’ve exchanged some e – mails and talked on the phone with — you walk out of the room knowing about their passions, hopes, and fears. You

really see them as individuals, not employees or colleagues, but people. At its most basic level, the curriculum teaches our leaders how

to create fans by spreading their passion. We call this the fan cycle. The fan cycle is a series of steps that provide a blueprint for turning

passive participation into ownership for a brand, product, service, or cause. It is based in part on digital marketing expert and avid

marketer David Armano’ s people graphic, and partly on Citizen Marketers authors Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell ’ s loyalty ladder

model. It is a guide for developing tools for online and off – line conversations and for measuring those tools ’ success. As we start

to engage the customers, employees, and others who make up a fan community we ’ re developing, the fan cycle allows us to index

behavior, engagement, and tools in a uniquely actionable way and create a fertile ground for meaningful interaction.

Don’t miss Geno Church’s #optsum workshop Lessons Learned in Igniting Word of Mouth Movements Part One and Two

Authentic, sustainable word of mouth marketing is one of the truest forms of brand communication, and it can’t be manufactured or bought.  And yet, as more institutions dedicate marketing dollars to assemble word of mouth and buzz marketing programs, how can you build an effective, meaningful movement for your brand that will directly impact your bottom line?  How can you identify those brand advocates already speaking out on your behalf, and work with them to develop a natural two-way word of mouth program?

Geno will explain how word of mouth marketing works and how it doesn’t, providing techniques on how you can start to identify movement-building opportunities for your brand, with authenticity and clear measurement results in mind. You’ll learn how to identify passion conversations versus product conversations, and how to “open the kimono” to your customers and fans. He will highlight successful WOM case studies, as well as talk about ways to define ROI.

In addition, Geno will draw from lessons discussed in the book Brains on Fire – revealing how to ignite powerful, meaningful, sustainable word-of-mouth movements that are a “win-win” for both customers and business. Believing the focus should be on people and not simply new tools and tactics is the key to building long-term momentum both online and offline for companies, products, services or organizations.

Workshop Details

* Date: September 13,2011
* Time:
* Room:
* Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Geno Church, Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer, Brains on Fire

Geno was born and raised in the South and proudly calls Greenville , SC his home. He spent two years at Furman University and went on to the University of South Carolina to receive a degree in Advertising. In his 13+ years with Brains On Fire, Geno has helped build word of mouth into the identities of brands that include Fiskars Brands, the American Booksellers Association, Rawlings Sporting Goods, National Family Partnership, Earshot Independent Music Stores, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and Rage Against the Haze (South Carolina’s youth led anti-tobacco movement). Geno is responsible for developing word of mouth, buzz, viral and evangelism strategies for Brains on Fire’s clients.
Geno has been repeatedly recognized as a thought leader in both the identity and word of mouth realms and has also received awards from numerous organizations, including the 2004 National ADDYs, where he received honors for his work with Rage Against the Haze. Rage also won a coveted gold Effie award in 2008 and a Wommie award in 2006 from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. The Fiskars Brand Ambassador movement, of which was Geno’s brainchild, was also recognized by ad:tech and the Forrester Groundswell awards in 2007. In addition, the children’s book he helped illustrate and create, The Red Ribbon Works, was used as a backdrop for President Clinton’s War on Drugs.
Geno has given presentations at numerous events, including the National Conference on Tobacco and Health, the American Public Health Association Exposition, several Word of Mouth Marketing Association conferences, Social Media 2007 in Atlanta and Customer Management World 2007 in Johannesburg , South Africa . He is a frequent contributor to the Brains on Fire blog, which is one of the top marketing and word of mouth blogs in the world and referenced industry wide on a weekly basis.
Geno is a co-author of the book Brains on Fire published by Wiley Publishing in 2010.  Books will be sold at the event.

Join in the conversation on the Brains on Fire blog at www.brainsonfire.com/blog, or follow Geno on Twitter @genochurch.

Geno Church: Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer at Brains On Fire
Arbitrary Facts:
• USC grad
• Furman football fanatic
• Scored 50 points in a basketball game
• Played in a glam-rock band

Old-Fashioned Contacts:
864.676.9663
geno (at) brainsonfire.com
Brains on Fire  148 River Street, Suite 100 Greenville, SC 29601

By Genae Girard

Every company is trying to use Facebook in an attempt to move their business forward and stay connected to their customers in this fast paced world. Why are some companies more successful at this than others? Content is the key to staying in touch with your customers and keeping them informed. The content, however, must be a rich mix of information, education, humor and fun. Use the HICCUP approach to make your Facebook page more successful:

HUMOR

Humor allows your audience to come away with a warm fuzzy feeling and a friendly attachment to your message. It doesn’t have to be industry specific, although it can be. You can do viral searches on YouTube and/or sites that plug social media. Always watch a video all the way through before posting as you don’t want it to include any profanity or other unmentionables.  Remember video is king. Written blogs are being trumped by the clever, colorful and often fun video blogs.

INTERACTIVE QUESTIONS

Don’t be afraid to ask open-ended questions to your group. For example, if you are a financial advisor, you may want to ask, “what is your biggest concern with the down economy?” The purpose here is to begin the conversation. People posting their answers will create a community buzz. Letting the responses unfold naturally also gives you a marketing advantage. The financial advisor can track the concerns and create future training or webinars around his/her consumer’s needs.

CONTENT

If you don’t provide a myriad of interesting topics, information and current trends, current customers as well as future customers simply go away. Clicking “Unlike” on Facebook is just as easy as clicking “Like.” Smart, clever and challenging content will keep your audience waiting for more. With most companies having a presence on Facebook, competition will become fierce and you have to stand out.

CURRENT EVENTS

If you haven’t done so already, get plugged in to all online media, and/or trade publications online. When something interesting pops up, pass it along for other people’s knowledge. If something political occurs that impacts your industry for example, pass it along. Never make a personal judgment about the event. Let your community unfold. Use Google Alerts in which you can program in key words to notify you of events and news feeds that pertain to your industry.  Use a program like Hootsuite to consolidate and Tweet events out to all of your feeds and accounts at one time.

UTILIZING INDUSTRY FACTS

Keep your followers abreast of changes in your particular industry and relate them back to your own business. For example, if you are an accountant and there are some tax changes around the corner, keep people aware by posting them on Facebook. If you are a medical office, you may want to post information on when a flu vaccine is available and what days and times you can sign up for the office visit. These are specific actions that endear your customers to your brand.

PROMOS and SPECIALS

Mention specials, promotions, new products and services. You can get creative here and run a coupon or contest. Talk about new employees, business awards or articles written by your staff. You can drive traffic to your business and services by using this concept. The one caution is that you shouldn’t overuse Facebook to market to your customer base. They can grow tired of it and quickly choose “Unlike” on your page, causing you to lose a potential client.

To be successful, all categories should be represented on your posts daily. If you personally don’t have time, assign this process to an employee or virtual assistant. Give them these rules for your industry and explain the process. Generally creative, idea-generating minds are the best individuals suited for this task. If you follow this model for promoting your business on Facebook, customers will stick around to see what you post next. As the Facebook community grows, we will all have to fight for the attention of the consumer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Genae Girard is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. She is the founder of www.BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com, an online social media tribe of over 20,200 breast cancer survivors and regularly speaks on the topics of women in leadership, building a tribe and social media. She is also the author of “Off the Rack: Chronicles of a Thirty-Something, Single, Breast Cancer Survivor.” For inquiries, e-mail: info@BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com or call 512-796-1618.

Don’t miss Geno Church’s #optsum workshop Lessons Learned in Igniting Word of Mouth Movements Part One and Two

Authentic, sustainable word of mouth marketing is one of the truest forms of brand communication, and it can’t be manufactured or bought.  And yet, as more institutions dedicate marketing dollars to assemble word of mouth and buzz marketing programs, how can you build an effective, meaningful movement for your brand that will directly impact your bottom line?  How can you identify those brand advocates already speaking out on your behalf, and work with them to develop a natural two-way word of mouth program?

Geno will explain how word of mouth marketing works and how it doesn’t, providing techniques on how you can start to identify movement-building opportunities for your brand, with authenticity and clear measurement results in mind. You’ll learn how to identify passion conversations versus product conversations, and how to “open the kimono” to your customers and fans. He will highlight successful WOM case studies, as well as talk about ways to define ROI.

In addition, Geno will draw from lessons discussed in the book Brains on Fire – revealing how to ignite powerful, meaningful, sustainable word-of-mouth movements that are a “win-win” for both customers and business. Believing the focus should be on people and not simply new tools and tactics is the key to building long-term momentum both online and offline for companies, products, services or organizations.

Workshop Details

* Date: September 13,2011
* Time:
* Room:
* Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Geno Church, Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer, Brains on Fire

Geno was born and raised in the South and proudly calls Greenville , SC his home. He spent two years at Furman University and went on to the University of South Carolina to receive a degree in Advertising. In his 13+ years with Brains On Fire, Geno has helped build word of mouth into the identities of brands that include Fiskars Brands, the American Booksellers Association, Rawlings Sporting Goods, National Family Partnership, Earshot Independent Music Stores, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and Rage Against the Haze (South Carolina’s youth led anti-tobacco movement). Geno is responsible for developing word of mouth, buzz, viral and evangelism strategies for Brains on Fire’s clients.
Geno has been repeatedly recognized as a thought leader in both the identity and word of mouth realms and has also received awards from numerous organizations, including the 2004 National ADDYs, where he received honors for his work with Rage Against the Haze. Rage also won a coveted gold Effie award in 2008 and a Wommie award in 2006 from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. The Fiskars Brand Ambassador movement, of which was Geno’s brainchild, was also recognized by ad:tech and the Forrester Groundswell awards in 2007. In addition, the children’s book he helped illustrate and create, The Red Ribbon Works, was used as a backdrop for President Clinton’s War on Drugs.
Geno has given presentations at numerous events, including the National Conference on Tobacco and Health, the American Public Health Association Exposition, several Word of Mouth Marketing Association conferences, Social Media 2007 in Atlanta and Customer Management World 2007 in Johannesburg , South Africa . He is a frequent contributor to the Brains on Fire blog, which is one of the top marketing and word of mouth blogs in the world and referenced industry wide on a weekly basis.
Geno is a co-author of the book Brains on Fire published by Wiley Publishing in 2010.  Books will be sold at the event.

Join in the conversation on the Brains on Fire blog at www.brainsonfire.com/blog, or follow Geno on Twitter @genochurch.

Geno Church: Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer at Brains On Fire
Arbitrary Facts:
• USC grad
• Furman football fanatic
• Scored 50 points in a basketball game
• Played in a glam-rock band

Old-Fashioned Contacts:
864.676.9663
geno (at) brainsonfire.com
Brains on Fire  148 River Street, Suite 100 Greenville, SC 29601

Michael owns a bakery that has recently started using social media. He decided to get on board and try to build his following through Facebook and Twitter, yet consumers that “Like” his Facebook page keep dropping off. He has been posting facts about his business including specials and new products with limited success. Michael knows that Social Media is important to grow his business, but is confused about consumers jumping ship.  How can Michael keep his customers engaged so that he can continue to build his social media following?

There is a new goldmine in social media that more companies are discovering. That treasure consists of a doorway that bridges the gap between your brand and the consumer. That gold nugget is nostalgia. That’s right, talking about the yesteryears creates that warm fuzzy feeling conjuring up images of childhood, fun and remembrances of a less fast-paced hectic life. In this world of constant change where we are bombarded by texting, e-mails and other forms of marketing, we long for the less complicated times of hot dogs, baseball and apple pie.

At social gatherings you often hear of people bringing up childhood games, toys or food with great joy and camaraderie. An old Radio Flyer wagon, or grandmother sneaking them a brownie before dinner brings a broad smile and instant conversation. Why not use that joy to your marketing advantage? When used properly, nostalgia can be the social media glue between you and your consumer. Here are some tips on how to use nostalgia for your advantage:

Dos

-Pick topics that are directly relatable to your demographic. For example, if your consumer base grew up in the ‘80s, pick topics directly relatable to that timetable including music, social references or trends.

-Ask open-ended questions about the history of your group to get them talking about fond moments in their lives. This can be as simple as asking the question, “ What was your favorite song in the ‘80s?”

-Get creative. If you are in the grocery industry, try talking about the fact that you remember when generic cans were black and white. If you are in the communications industry, try talking about when cell phones were the size of a bread machine.

-Keep it light and humorous. People like to laugh. Humor wins their hearts and their buying habits. Often in social media, consumers are surfing Facebook or Twitter in their spare time. A break of laughter endears your brand to them.

-Be a listener. As your consumer base responds, keep notes on what topics get the most discussion responses. Note them in a file and use them to your advantage. Use responses to tailor future posts as well as your marketing materials.

Don’ts

-Never pass judgment on responses to your posts. Let them unfold organically and you will be amazed at the creativity people use to get involved in the discussion.

-Never talk about historical events like politics or religion that could spark too much negative debate.

-If you are missing the creative gene, don’t be in charge of creating the posts. Determine the focus and overall content and have someone on your staff who is creative be in charge of posting.

Need a source of information and inspiration? United Online, Inc. has launched MemoryLane.com^™, the largest archive of nostalgic content on the Internet. This website allows visitors to relive the past with over 100 million pieces of content dating from 1940 through 1999.

Using the tools out lined above will develop the dialog between you and the group and endear your customer to your brand by bringing to the forefront topics that they miss from their past.  Echo their history, warm their heart and solidify your brand.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Genae Girard is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. She is the founder of www.BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com, an online social media tribe of over 18,500 breast cancer survivors and regularly speaks on the topics of women in leadership and building a tribe. She is also the author of “Off the Rack: Chronicles of a Thirty-Something, Single, Breast Cancer Survivor.” For inquiries email: info@BeyondtheBoobieTrap.com or call 512-796-1618.

This is a change that isn’t really about the technology of social media, but about how businesses need to adapt in the face of consumers’ embrace of it.

Just as other communication revolutions necessitated that we rethink our business from the inside out, the Now Revolution does as well. From culture to people to process, we can reengineer how we operate to make this the most incredible opportunity time in business history.

There are seven keys to making the Now Revolution work for you.

1. New Bedrock
Deeply shared values and invested individuals make up a company culture that can and will embrace speed, nimbleness, and decentralized decision making. Your healthy culture will share an optimism and open dialogue that embraces independence and a free flow of ideas, feedback, and input from all areas of the company.

2. Talent You Can Trust
The Now Revolution is about people, not logos. You won’t just rely on official spokespeople to steward your brand; rather you’ll bring aboard (and work hard to retain) people throughout the company that can build and nurture your community. Social media is not just a job, but also a skill.

3. Organized Armies
The organizational models that emerge in your real-time business will distribute decision making and authority throughout the company. You’ll find ways to reduce friction and procedural bottlenecks in favor of faster, more fluid communication within and among the ranks, potentially using internal social media to do so.

4. The New Telephone
Just like you’ve put a phone on everyone’s desk in your company, you’ll incorporate social media listening capabilities into your work to power your day- to-day business. As you’ve adopted systems to manage your e-mail, your web analytics, or your customer relationship management, you’ll now adopt systems that help you hear the important conversations that are happening online.

5. Response-Ability
The Humanization Highway will guide your social media journey, and you’ll start talking to your customers in ways you never have before. What starts as reacting and responding will give way to contribution and participation, even your own storytelling. Not only will you be part of the conversations that others have started, but you’ll start your own.

6. Fire Extinguishers
Preparedness is part of what will define your company’s success. As much as crisis is something you work to prevent, you’ll have a plan for its possibility. Because social media is always on and always moving, the plan
you develop will not only define urgency and crisis in your own context, but give your employees all of the guidance needed to create an immediate and informed response.

7. Calculators
Keeping score matters. Knowing what information you have available will help you determine what you can easily measure or what new tracking methods or systems you might need to put in place. You’ll also evaluate what your investment will be in social media, from hard costs like technology to soft costs like staff time.

Armed with both your goals and that data, you’ll select straightforward, clear metrics that will show you whether you’re making progress toward your objectives.

Possibility Awaits

You are experiencing history. The next generation of human and business connectivity is here.

The social web amplifies even the quietest voices, provides ways to connect unbound by time and geography, and creates urgency and opportunity at every turn. The technology is new. But the central philosophies of social media—conversation and connection—are familiar indeed. Social media enables big companies to act small again, and it allows small companies to engage with their customers in new and exciting ways.

But success isn’t about ‘‘being on Twitter’’ or mastering any other particular social tool. Instead, success accrues to businesses that are present, agile, responsive, and prepared. The companies that tame the Now Revolution see that this isn’t really a technology trend at all, but rather a trend of humanization that makes your people as much the star of your show as your products have been historically.

The Now Revolution means that almost any business can be a superstar, including yours. Are you ready to take the stage?

Jay Baer

#optsum Workshop Details

* Date: September 12,2011
* Time: 8:00 am- 10:am
* Room:
* Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Social Media Speaker

Jay  is a tequila-loving, hype-free social media strategist that helps major corporations and their agencies harness the awesome power of the social Web. A founder of 5 digital marketing companies, he’s worked with more than 700 brands since 1994, including 25 of the Fortune 1000. His blog – Convince & Convert – was named one of the world’s top 3 social media blogs, and he’s the co-author of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social.

Learn the “7 Shifts To Make Businesses Faster, Smarter & More Social” directly from the authors. widely recognized as among the best and most engaging marketing speaker in the U.S., Jay Baer will present the principles of The NOW Revolution  and teach you about the changes you need to make.

I was learning my around on Quora and ran across a question that grabbed my attention.

“Who originated the Four C’s of Social Media?”

We may never know for certain but Colin Walker gave us the Five C’s of Social Media in June of 2008.

1. Contribute – easy sharing of information
2. Comment – your chance to have your say
3. Conversation – getting involved in discussions with others
4. Collaborate – work with anyone, anywhere to achieve a common goal
5. Community – building relationships online

And as is the curse of my mind I took off researching the chain of thoughts that followed and found that many people have come up this their own set of  C’s.  The version  that I tend to side with is that the Five C’s of Social Media ties into the famous Four P’s. Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Well, as we all know there is now one more P.  Participation.

Do you have your own set of C’s?

Do you think these Five C’s are correct?

The Internet connects us like no other medium, and social networking sites are a great way to stay in touch and turn connections into business. Here are the top ten opportunities that social networking offers and why you should stay connected in 2010:

1.    Spread a consistent message/image to a large audience about your brand, identity, and products/services
2.    Meet people in your industry, find employees and employers, ask for referrals, and get/give advice
3.    Put a “face” on your business and show your corporate personality
4.    Help build your website’s search engine ranking by cross-linking on all sites and optimizing media assets (the more quality links to your site, the better!)
5.    Compliment your existing online and offline presence (Do not replace them)
6.    Provide helpful, relevant information that is useful to the masses
7.    Turn your new and existing customers into repeat customers and fans
8.    Target specific demographics/industries/companies by using proper and consistent keywords/phrases for your audience
9.    Promote your events, promotion and specials to a wider audience
10. Elevate your customer service to a new, transparent level

Top 10 favorite social networking sites:

1.    Facebook
2.    MySpace
3.    Twitter
4.    YouTube
5.    LinkedIn
6.    Yahoo Answers
7.    Flickr
8.    del.icio.us
9.    Digg
10.    Stumbleupon

Erica Campbell has experience across multiple industries including automotive, real estate, heavy equipment, travel, sports and entertainment. Campbell joined Dominion Enterprises in 2004 and currently serves as the Senior Manager of New Media Marketing for For Rent Media Solutions. Her experience includes developing, executing, optimizing and analyzing social media strategic plans across multiple channels including blogs, social networking sites, video sharing sites and other conversational media. She spends a great deal of time building relationships with social media influencers, bloggers and new consumer business to generate awareness of clients and products. Campbell is also responsible for managing the email marketing campaigns. In addition, Campbell is an industry speaker and conducts added value Webinars for customers as well as training for For Rent Media Solutions employees nationwide.
erica.campbell@forrent.com | www.ForRent.com
Find Apartments For Rent on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!
Follow Me Here:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ericawcampbell
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ericacampbell
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericawcampbell
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/apartmentsforrent
Blog: http://blog.forrent.com/

Jun Loayza is the President of SocialMediaMarketing.com, a company focused on building social media campaigns for companies. He is also the co-founder of Viralogy.com, which measures and ranks your social influence online. He loves to meet other young, motivated entrepreneurs, and can be reached though his personal blog. Jun  lead How To Implement Ambassador “Experience” Campaigns workshop on  at the Social media Optimization Summits this past September.

Twitter () is my news stream. I use it to get the best news and information from people that I trust and admire. I barely even use my Google Reader () anymore because I carry my Twitter with me everywhere I go.

As you find more and more interesting and valuable people to follow, you’re going to find it difficult to keep track of all of the tweets you receive. You’re going to need something to help you manage all of the noise.

Just take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk (2,800+ following) and The Busy Brain (5,000+ following). I’m sure that at times, it gets difficult for each to keep track of all of their tweets because of the sheer volume they get in their stream.

So what do you do when you want to quiet the Twitter noise but don’t want to de-friend people? You currently have a few options:

1. Instead of listening to all of the noise, you can focus in on certain signals
2. You can use a platform to group your favorite tweeples and focus only on them
3. You can mute the tweeps that you don’t want to receive tweets from

Focus on the signal rather than the noise

Just Signal
Just Signal is an early-stage site that promises to stream in the tweets and FriendFeeds that you are interested in. The way they facilitate this is through a “filter” text box. In the text box, you input all of the keywords that you would like to filter in from Twitter, and they will feed “almost in real time.”

Tweetbeep
Tweetbeep is a great site that is very similar to Google Alerts. Using Tweetbeep, you can track any keywords that you want on Twitter and instantly get emailed when your keyword has been tweeted. This platform is much better than Just Signal because you don’t have to sit idly waiting for your keywords to stream in. With Tweetbeep, you just set your keywords and let them come into your email box.

Twilert
Another great alternative is Twilert. Like Tweetbeep, Twilert lets you create keywords that are tracked on Twitter and sent to you via email. Put simply, it’s Google Alerts for Twitter.

Isolate your favorite tweeple from the rest

To be perfectly honest, I’m a twhirl () fan, but Tweetdeck () has a killer function called Tweetdeck Groups that allows you to isolate your favorite tweeple from the rest of the noise. Just choose who you want to stand out, and Tweetdeck will create a column specifically for this user’s feed.

This is especially useful when you’re following over 300 people. So instead of sifting through all of the noise, just go to your favorite group and read the tweets that matter most to you.

You can view a comparison of Tweetdeck and twhirl here.

I just want to MUTE the noise

Twalala promises to mute certain people on Twitter without actually de-friending them. Why on earth would you want to actually mute someone?

• If you don’t want to see someone’s rant about their bad day at the office, you can mute them for the day.

• If you missed the season finale of Dancing with the Stars and don’t want to find out who won, you can mute any tweets with the keywords “Dancing with the Stars.”

Twalala feels that people would rather mute than de-friend because de-friending can be seen as offensive. Also, many people wouldn’t want others to know that they have just de-friended them, especially with sites like Qwitter out there.

Of course, by muting the people you follow, you selectively lose the opportunity to read that great 10% of information or breaking news that you would have received otherwise.

How do you manage your volume of tweets? Leave your favorite tips in the comments.

1.  Social Media Isn’t Singular

We really have heard it all … “Show me the ROI.”  “Facebook isn’t a marketing channel.”  “Social media is for conversation, not conversion.”  Fact is, social media isn’t any one thing, and therefore doesn’t fit neatly into any one box.

Follow me here… back when the Internet was new, it took many of us a while to fully grasp what email or websites could do; but eventually we came to realize that they was more than fancy replacements for paper … that they supported a number of functions including customer service, communications, community, entertainment, advertising, engagement, marketing, PR, and more—and all to varying degrees depending on a company’s brand, marketing approach, culture, and (most importantly) how our customers prefer to engage with our brand.

Very much like email, social media is becoming the “Swiss Army Knife” not just of marketing, but also of customer service and retention, product development, internal communications, innovation and idea development, and so much more.  And yet, so many people still insist on trying to fit “it” into their existing marketing structure as though it is and does only one thing.

It’s not a one-trick pony, so don’t treat it like one.

2.  Customer Service Is the New Marketing

This isn’t new news to those of us who have always lived by “the customer is always right”— but in a world gone social and with increasing consumer demand for transparency, serving your customers not just well, but remarkably well, has become more important than ever before.

Communicating with speed and honesty to issues—and that goes for the flipside, too: enabling your customers and community to communicate to you—has become Priority One in your ability to acquire new customers.  People “talk” … they always have, and now that social media has enabled them to do it pretty much 24/7 and to whole groups of friends at once, they do it more effectively than ever before.  We also know that it’s human nature for them to share bad experiences more readily than good ones.  Ten years ago, a resident told a friend, and maybe that friend told somebody, and perhaps even that friend told somebody else.  Today a resident clicks a few keys on Facebook and tells a hundred people at once; and if that’s as far as it goes, you can thank your lucky stars. And I’m not even going to go into depth about how long a bad rating can hang around to haunt your reputation once it’s been posted to a community ratings site.

In this new social paradigm, your front line and marketing departments need to learn to work hand in hand to avoid bad customer experiences and make it easier and more likely for customers to share great ones!  In the old paradigm, onsite and marketing might have been separated by any number of tortuous lines and boxes on the old org chart; but in the new world, they must be aligned to facilitate the flow of communication between them, and create great experiences for customers as a result.

3.  Your Marketing Department Just Got a Whole Lot Bigger

Because it now includes your customers.  Way back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan told us that the medium is the message, and that’s still true today in that our various social media platforms lend undeniable character to what we convey there.  But what’s different now is that the messages have become vastly more personalized.  A great print ad is a powerful thing, but it will never possess the ability to persuade another human being the way that another human being can. And your social community is entirely made up of them.

Now that said, it’s important to realize that marketing is still marketing; and the game has maybe not changed as drastically for us in that our business has always been about creating and ensuring a great customer experience.  What has changed, though is that instead of working with mostly headlines and taglines and deadlines and other linear processes, you’re now working in the totally three-dimensional, round-the-clock online world where many people communicate to many people all at the same time.  Instead of identifying and managing great creative, your job description now includes identifying, enabling, and encouraging (due diligence) influential fans of your business (channel selection) to convince people that you’re their best possible choice (execution).  The job is still the same, but the medium has changed the game.

4.  It’s ALL Mobile Marketing

We’re all on the go, and most of us are consuming large quantities of our information via a mobile device of some kind or other; and the more that becomes a commonality, the less specialized that communications channel becomes.  It’s on the fast track to become the dominant way that we interact with other individuals and with brands and pretty much the whole world at large.  More customers are going to be interacting with you on the small screen, so if you’re not already focusing some of your marketing efforts on optimizing that experience, it’s time to.  Try to think of “mobile marketing” as less about being a channel and more about reaching people when and where they are (and are willing) to interact with your brand. That’s more and more likely to be via the small screen in their hand.

Oh, one more thing… while you might be tempted to dismiss the iPad as just another slick new tech toy, think again.  There’s a big gap to be filled between laptops and handhelds, and the iPad is just one of many devices rushing to fill that void. With more “tablet” sized devices on the horizon, you can expect more costumers to be found there, as well.

5.  Enter The Chief Marketing Nerd

As more companies come to terms with the fact that technology and marketing have merged, they’ll begin to see the justified need to hire senior level management (Chief Marketing Technology Officers or Social Media Marketing Officers, or some other titular combination that’s equal parts Creative and Geek) to oversee the tech-related facets of the marketing process and help marketing and IT work together as a seamless team.  The few and foresightful professionals out there who have reinforced their marketing expertise with technical know-how will be—should already be—in hot demand.  As even more new channels emerge and the pace of change gains even more momentum, companies that don’t invest in tech-savvy marketing expertise are going to be quickly outmaneuvered by the competition.

6.  Email is Still a Killer App

And finally, social media and mobile delivery may be hogging the spotlight, but don’t forget about your old faithful marketing steady: email.  Maybe it isn’t as hot as it used to be, but it continues to be a tremendously reliable way to deliver a message, engage people with your brand, convey value, and save you time and money … but there’s one important thing you do need to know.  A slight shift is happening as consumers begin using email less often for their personal communications than Tweeting, posting, messaging, or texting—the key word there being personal.  Permission-based email is still today’s consumer’s preferred channel for interacting with companies and brands; but now that more consumers are receiving it on the go, it’s more important than ever to deliver the right message at the right time.

Fore an in-depth analysis of what social media can quantifiable do for you, we recommend Social Media ROI in the Real World, presented by Mike Merrill of Bacon Marketing at our next Social Media Optimization Summits event!  We’ll see you there!

What are some of the new marketing truths you’ve discovered since the advent of social media?  We’ll see you in the comment box!

·    The first story told is the story most retold…and the story most believed.

·    Buzz is the bomb…it can propel you to the top, or blow up in your face.

Silence is Not Golden…It’s Guilty

In high school science, we learn that nature abhors a vacuum.  Well nowhere is this truer than on the Internet.  If a business fails to comment on an event, good or bad, then the social media will rush in to fill the void around the corporate brand.  It’s very simple.  The construction of search engines and social media is such that there will never be silence associated with any brand.

Whether the brand is the iPhone, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Disney, Universal Studios, or an unknown convenient store on the corner of Smalltown, USA; if something happens, somebody must comment.  That is the nature of the Internet and the social media in the 21st century.  With the advent of internet enabled cell phones, YouTube enabled smart phones, text messaging and location enabled Twitter, everybody is not just a news reporter; they are a video historian.  Watch the evening news in any market, anywhere in the world, and you will see YouTube video broadcast about a news event that has happened that day.  Nothing is more powerful than eyewitness testimony, both in a court of law and on the six o’clock news.

It is important to remember that is not the occasional user of the social media who is making these reports; it is the regular blogger, the regular Twitter broadcaster, and the regular YouTube poster, who is making these reports.  They have followers and their followers have followers.  The average reach of these individuals is over 20,000, and their audience is reliable.  This means that corporations cannot just broadcast a message in the social media when something happens, corporations must have a presence 24/7. The social media presence of a corporation must be part of an ongoing plan and deliberate social media optimization process that ensures that the corporation has an audience, and that the corporate audience is larger than that of any client or customer who may come through their door.

The First Story Told is the Story Most Retold and the Story Most Believed

The social media is a cultural phenomenon based on a conglomerate of social norms and behaviors that span age groups and demographics.  And as a result, the rules are difficult for many entrepreneurs and executives to negotiate.
But one of the rules that is constant across all social media platforms is the first story told is the first story believed. Further, in the social media, the first story about a major event, positive or negative, will be retold, retransmitted and shared among social media users.  The first story told in the social media will be converted to email and resent. The first story told is also the most likely story to make the transition to traditional media, in other words, it will become news.  Because of this, it is not enough to respond when a message appears on one of the popular social media platforms, such as Facebook for Twitter.  Instead, when an event occurs, a business must have a prepared statement ready to transmit immediately through an established social media optimization program to ensure that the corporate message is first story told.  Ideally, this corporate message will even precede those messages, blogs, tweets, and YouTube postings that may be coming from those customers actually involved as participants in the event.

And don’t believe for a second that blocking cell phone communications, disconnecting Wi-Fi, shutting down Internet or in some other fashion, disrupting access to the social media will delay negative social media messages.  This has been tried by major governments around the world and in every instance, not only has it in fact accelerated the rate that these messages have been transmitted, but increased the negative sentiment attached to the event. Ironically such attempts to block social media messages actually expanded the reach of every message that the perpetrators attempted to block.

The great Vince Lombardi once said, “the best defense is a strong offense.”
In the social media, nothing could be more true.  The only way to counter a negative message is to send your positive message, even before the first negative message can be transmitted.

Buzz is the Bomb…It Can Propel You to the Top, or Blow Up in Your Face

W.C. Fields once said, “I don’t care what you say about me, so long as you spell my name correctly.”  In the social media, W.C. Fields’ advice would be disastrous.  What is said absolutely matters.  The sentiment surrounding the brand determines the degree of influence that a message has and it determines the action taken by those who receive the message.  The goal of all marketing is to influence potential clients and potential customers to make a purchase.  In the social media, that means that they must be influenced to reach for the mouse, reach for the credit card, reach for their wallet and make the purchase.

Buzz is the bomb.  A positive buzz, means that there is positive message activity around your brand.  There is positive buzz when people are sending your message to their friends, their friends are sending your to other friends and it all influences someone to make that positive buy decision.

If the sentiment surrounding your message is negative, buzz can blow up in your face.  Research shows that a negative message will be sent on four times more frequently than a positive message, thus doing four times the damage, influencing four times as many people not to buy.

W.C. Fields was wrong, it is not good enough that your name is spelled correctly, something good must be said as well.  The easiest way to ensure that something good is said, influence those who influence others to say something good about you.  Again, this is done by having a constant positive presence in the social media, even before anything noteworthy happens at your company, at your place of business, in your brand.

There are three rules of social media marketing for businesses large and small. Turn on the news any night and you will see big business that have failed to follow these three simple rules.  Whether it is a cruise ship with a passenger falling overboard and 124,000 tweets telling the story of how they left him behind, or it is a major amusement park with the most anticipated themed ride in a decade breaking down, trapping riders for 45 minutes and generating 50 YouTube uploads.  To succeed in the social media
remember: Silence is not golden, businesses must be in the social media early, regularly, and constantly.  The first story told is the first story retold.  To be the one telling your story, influencing others to retell your story, businesses must take ownership of that message, or someone else will fill the void and tell your story for you from their perspective.  And finally, buzz is the bomb.  That buzz must be positive, so that the bomb does not blow up in your face.

About the Author:
Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez is founder of the consulting firm High Alert, LLC. He is a renowned speaker on the importance of social networking and has presented to national organizations.  As a consultant, Dr. Ramirez assists companies to align business continuity plans with personnel and customer behavior during adversity. Dr. Ramirez is founding chairperson of the American Board of Disaster Medicine and a Senior Physician-Federal Medical Officer. Please visit www.high-alert.com

Other location-based services, including Gowalla, Loopt and Where, are also being actively embraced by mobile-device owners to shop, communicate, socialize and play games. Their total number of members runs in the millions.  “None of us have 30 million users, but we’re just at the beginning of breaking into the mainstream,” says Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt, which has 3 million users.  Meantime, Google is—of course—ramping up an aggressive push for it’s own mobile social network, Latitude; and Facebook is expected to announce new location-based features later this year.  Foursquare, however, is the brand leader in this fledgling arena. Earlier this year, there were rumors of an acquisition brewing with the likes of Facebook and Yahoo, with Foursquare leaders deciding that it was just too soon to sell.

Expect location-based services to play a starring role in the rising wave in mobile advertising, poised to rocket to $3.1 billion in the U.S. in 2013 from $320 million in 2009, according to market researcher BIA/Kelsey.  Driving that growth is the rise in smartphone sales, expected to account for the majority of U.S. phones by the end of 2011, according to Nielsen.  About 5% of the more than 225,000 iPhone apps out there are location-sensitive.

Analysts say the appeal of location sharing goes far beyond game-playing and seeing where your friends are. “Location is such an important tool for local merchants and marketers to more deeply connect with customers,” says Michael Boland, an analyst at BIA/Kelsey.  Expect an increasing number of merchants to capitalize on this loyal customer base as they become more familiar with the apps and discover new ways to use them to interact and more profitably engage with customers.

Since it began last year, Foursquare has established partnerships with more than 15,000 businesses, including Starbucks and CNN; and is adding up to 15,000 users a day. Loopt has signed advertisers such as Burger King and Gap. Where has deals with 20,000 small businesses in North America.  “It’s not that these folks haven’t advertised before,” Where CEO Walt Doyle says. “They’re just changing who they advertise with—in this case, digital, instead of print.”

The services will only become more popular as consumers also share photos and content, says Josh Williams, CEO of Gowalla, which is up to 350,000 users.  These consumers are also going to share their experiences, making location-based services an invaluable opportunity for merchants to both get to know their customers better and to encourage them through incentives, contests, and other engagement programs, to act as brand ambassadors.

To find out more about location-based social networking and how to put it to work for your company, check in to The Power of Place, led by Jodi Gersh of the Gannett Company (whose networks include CareerBuilder.com, USA Today, Metromix.com, and more) part of your Social Media Optimization Summits agenda!  We’ll see you there!

So why do those three-inch screens even matter? Because right now, it’s estimated that more than 40% of US consumers use smartphones, with the number growing rapidly as mobile hardware and software functionality becomes more and more sophisticated and enticing. You probably know somebody (or more likely several somebodies) who can hardly wait to get their hands on the new iPhone 4; and a friend of mine recently joked that while “Wanna see my Droid?” has always been a hot pickup line among Star Wars nerds, it’s now a perfectly mainstream question asked by people who don’t even adhere to the Jedi Code.

Here in the US, iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries are leading the pack when it comes to mobile data use, in that order; and access to mobile data is projected to grow by 40% over the next five years. So if those numbers matter enough to you to begin thinking about reaching your audience via their smartphones, here are a few tips and considerations to keep in mind:

• Go small or go home. While it’s possible for mobile users to access your “regular” website on a smartphone, it’s also possible for their heads to explode from the eyestrain alone, not to mention the frustration of sliding the page around to get little glimpses of what you have to say. If you’re serious about delivering content to mobile users, create a mobile-optimized site.

• Think on your feet. The information needs of a user on the go aren’t the same as one at a desk. They want quick access to only the information they need most; so repurpose your existing web content for the mobile web by zeroing in on the portion of your product, service, and message that are most important to a user on the move.

• WWWWH. You’re limited by both space and time thanks to the size of the screen and the user’s need for immediate info; so keep it simple. Who (you are), What (you do), When (you’re open), Where (to find you), and How (to contact you). Simply covering those five bases will go a long way toward making your mobile website a powerful marketing tool.

The world of mobile content is growing and changing like crazy, and the factors that should be considered in reaching your mobile audience are far too many to cover in one blog post alone. If you want to know how to make the most of the tremendous opportunity that mobile marketing represents, join us for “What’s All The Buzz About Mobile Marketing” presented by Tim Grace on September 17th at our next Social Media Optimization Summits event. In this four-hour workshop, you’ll see and hear how to use mobile marketing to attract new customers and build the loyalty of your existing ones, including: integrating mobile marketing into your existing campaigns and strategies; how to optimize your existing web presence for mobile devices; when native apps are needed (iPhone, Droid, etc.) and what’s involved in building these tools; leveraging the power of texting and location-based services; and put your new skills and knowledge to work as you join in creating a mobile-optimized site and an iPhone app while the workshop is underway!

Point of Fact #1:  The vast majority of those slick-looking blogs that you see out there weren’t built from scratch and didn’t require much expertise or expense.  They were created using one of the more popular (mostly free) blogging platforms available on the web. These applications—including WordPress, TypePad, and Google’s popular platform, Blogger—will take you step-by-step through the creative, letting you point and click your way through a menu of available formats (themes) to decide how your blog will look, then easily customize the various elements of the theme (header/title, sidebar, links, main content blocks, images, etc.).  With time, some experimentation, and a little self-education, you’ll get more familiar and comfortable with the creative/management end (the “dashboard”), and find that you can make more customized adjustments to your blog’s layout, including changing out images, colors, headers, and more; and add custom elements (sometimes called “widgets”) that perform specialized functions like displaying your Twitter feed in a sidebar, scrolling testimonials, a photo gallery, and more.  But it’s important to know that a blog’s quality isn’t determined by the number or widgets you can cram onto the page.  Even if the old adage that “Content Is King” were to die in relation to every other form of expression on the web, when it comes to blogs, it will always be fundamentally true.

Point of Fact #2:  You don’t have to be Shakespeare.  If you have any doubts, take a minute now to visit www.WordPress.com, www.Blogger.com, and www.TypePad.com and start clicking around.  You’ll see blogs of all shapes and sizes and levels of literary capability; and you’ll very quickly realize that pretty much everybody these days has a blog, and if they can do it, you can, too!  (You’ll also realize that there are way too many people out there who think it’s a great idea to put a cat in a dress, but that’s a topic for another day).  Here’s what you need to know about composing for a blog—and about writing pretty much anything, when you get down to it:  write what you know and the words will flow.  If you’re at all good at what you do, then you know your customers and prospects fairly well.  You’re familiar with their questions and their needs.  You know exactly what you have to offer and how to communicate that to them in a way they can understand.  Fall back on those real-world skills and channel them into blog entries that say it like you’d speak it, and you’ll be more than halfway to blogging success.  For a fabulous example of all of the above, visit http://sethgodin.typepad.com/.

Point of Fact #3:  When it comes to blogs, success is a seriously subjective thing, and it’s admittedly more than possible to totally waste your time.  As with every other business effort, it’s important to have a plan that states what you hope to accomplish, delineates how you plan to get there, and identifies all the appropriate measures of success.  If you want to get the word out about your products and services, then you’re shooting for high stats so focus on all the available opportunities to pull in more eyeballs by promoting your blog URL everywhere you can, and make sure you have tools in place to measure the visits you get. If you’re looking to boost brand loyalty, then focus on ongoing ideas like special rewards and “how to use our product better” features that focus on developing continuing relationships with the people who’ll visit your blog.  I’ve had more than one person tell me they blog simply to get the ideas out of their head and into a place that helps them analyze things more objectively, which is a completely worthy goal in itself.  The target here is incredibly broad, so just enter into the endeavor with your own idea of success as fully formed as possible if you care about making the most of your effort and time.

And finally, Point of Fact #4:  There are so many more possibilities in blogging than we could ever fit into one article, so if you want the whole scoop on building a blog, make sure your plan for our next #OptSum event includes Scott Ellis’ workshop on WordPress 101: Build a Website in 4 Hours; and if you’re ready to go beyond the fundamentals, don’t miss Jason Falls’ workshop on Practical SEO for Corporate Blogs, and Mike Merrill’s workshop on Social Media ROI in the Real World just to name a few.  We’ll see you there!

During the first Internet () boom, the most common business model was probably, “get a ton of traffic, then figure out how to make money” — which savvy readers will note isn’t a very good business model. Often, the way those businesses attempted to make money on that traffic was to use display or text advertising. Making money from advertising is still possible, but it’s no longer as easy as building a site and putting some ads on it. Fortunately, there are a number of business models to choose from.

Today’s social media startups are finding unique ways of generating revenue from the very beginning. Here are a few of the revenue models that they’re using and how you can apply them to your company.

1. Freemium Model

Description: This business model works by offering a basic service for free, while charging for a premium service with advanced features to paying members.

Examples of the Freemium Model: UserVoice, Flickr (), Vimeo (), LinkedIn (), and PollDaddy

The biggest challenge for businesses using the freemium model is figuring how much to give away for free so that users will still need and want to upgrade to a paying plan. If most users can get by with the basic free plan, they won’t have a need to upgrade. For example, I’ll probably never upgrade my LinkedIn account and because I don’t shoot high definition videos, I’ll never need a Premium Vimeo account either.

I spoke with Marcus Nelson from UserVoice about their use of the freemium model and how it works:

1. Is UserVoice profitable?
We’re “ramen noodle” profitable, but have recently taken funding to accelerate our growth.

2. How long did it take UserVoice to implement a business model?
Eight months, though I would not recommend that as a new startup. I talk a lot more about this in an interview on Mixergy.

3. How long did it take to get your first customer?
Depends on your definition of customer – we had sign ups immediately and grew by 30-35% a month. What we had built was core features, so as we spoke with customers we began asking what would they pay for on our UserVoice page. Once we had some premium features in place, we went back to those customers and began doing paid pilots to test out the service. The first paid customer arrived in November.

4. How many users do you have right now?
16,652 as of June 5, 2009.

5. What percentage of users are paying members?
Since moving to paid plans, our conversion rate is around 5%.

6. What are the biggest obstacles that UserVoice has for getting members to pay?
The same as most businesses, providing value that customers want to pay for, and overcoming objections for implementation.

2. Affiliate Model

Description: This is a model in which a business makes money by driving traffic, leads, or sales to another, affiliated company’s website. Businesses that sell a product, meanwhile, rely on affiliated sites to send them the traffic or leads they need to make sales.

Examples of the Affiliate Model: Illuminated Mind, ShoeMoney, DIY Themes

Like businesses that rely on advertising, high traffic sites predictably have a much easier time making money using affiliate links than sites that are just starting out. High traffic means that even low conversion numbers can equal big bucks. However, in just a year since starting his blog, Jonathan Mead from the Illuminated Mind generates enough income from affiliate links that he has been able to leave his full-time job. This is a dream of many bloggers and this is how he did it:

1. When did you start your blog and how long did it take you to generate enough revenue to be a full-time blogger?
I started blogging in February of 2008, so it took me a little over a year (15 months) to become a full time blogger.

2. How much revenue are you generating through affiliate links?
I earn roughly $2-3k per month from affiliates. It depends on the month though, some are better than others.

3. How many page views per month do you have to receive in order to generate the status of a full-time blogger?
I don’t think page views really played a critical role in my success. I think creating a community based around living on your own terms and making self-development palatable, was really the key to my success. You can have tons of traffic without anyone really caring enough to value what you have to offer.

4. What is the best way to get your readers to click on your affiliate links?
I’ll try to break it down into what I think are the three most important factors.

1. You have to have your reader’s trust. If they don’t trust you, they will not buy what you recommend.

2. You have to target the products to your readers. Speak to their interests, personality and emotions.

3. You need to be able to write decent copy and communicate in a compelling way why they should buy what you’re recommending.

5. What are the best kinds of affiliate links: Low price point and low margin, or high price point high margins?
I only aim for $20 and above range, so I’m not sure how the lower priced products convert.

6. What are the biggest obstacles to overcome when generating revenue through affiliate links?
Reader trust and proper targeting. These things seem so simple, but it’s amazing how many people don’t get this part right. It’s worth the time researching those in your niche selling products and starting conversations with them. Ask them why their readers buy and then use that in your copy.

3. Subscription Model

Description: Sites using the subscription model require users to pay a fee (generally monthly or yearly) to access a product or service.

Examples of the Subscription Model: Label 2.0, Scrooge Strategy, Netflix

I talked to Greg Rollett, the founder of Label 2.0, a marketing school for musicians that sells its services for a monthly membership fee. The service teaches musicians how to use online tools to help further their careers, find more fans and navigate the business of music.

1. Why did you decide to use a subscription based model over a one-off sales model?
When Eric [Hebert] and I decided to work together I was actually presenting him with an offer to promote a product that I had created and he was working on something similar. Instead of offering a one-off sale for both products and fighting for the same niche (our sites have nearly identical target audience and traffic). We decided that coming together and creating a long term relationship with the people we were helping would be better for our business in the long run. We have enough content and features that every month will be an exciting new journey. The business model was pretty simple. We took the features that we liked the best and least from popular internet marketing strategies for membership sites, continuity programs, etc as well as different ways to run the membership software and found what was going to be the easiest for us to use and easiest for our members to digest

2. How did you prepare to have a successful launch to your service?
Luckily Eric and I had been building up trust and a user base for years through our blogs, Twitter (), live speaking events and client work. We have both worked on high profile projects and that helped us secure a great position in the market. We both posted teaser blog posts and within a few days we had over a 100 musicians testing it out and providing feedback for our public launch. We expect 300-500 paying members within the first 2 weeks.

3. What are your price-points and how are you maintaining a personal touch with your subscribers?
Our pricing model is high for the industry we are in and we know that. At around $50 a month and $400 a year we have priced ourselves to only work with those that really want to see an impact in their careers. If you look at the bigger picture and see that for consulting we typically charge $100 an hour, you are getting a great deal, but losing that one-on-one feeling. That is why we are having bi-monthly conference calls, webinars, walk-throughs, Q&A’s and really doing our best to ensure that every musician gets their bang for their buck.

4. What are the biggest obstacles in the subscription-based model?

1. Price – Musicians are used to free. MySpace is free, YouTube () is free, there is free information everywhere and musicians would rather spend $500 on a new guitar pedal than invest $50 into something that can find them hundreds of fans with which they can begin to make a living on.

2. Stereotypes – Musicians do not think of themselves as marketers. They feel like that is what a manager, record label or promoter is supposed to do. We are helping them turn that stereotype upside down by teaching them how to market themselves to create better relationships with their fans which is going to help their business in the long haul.

3. Monthly membership sites have a high attrition rate – The reason is after their 1st or second time they login, they forget about it and never come back. We are doing everything that we can to ensure that there is always something going on, from new lessons to trainings to calls and webinars to activity in the forums to leveraging the community to make everyone stronger.

4. Virtual Goods Model

Description: Users pay for virtual goods, such as weapons, upgrades, points, or gifts, on a website or in a game.

Examples of the Virtual Goods Model: Acclaim Games, Meez, Weeworld, Facebook Gifts

Virtual Goods come in all shapes and sizes. Hot or Not was one of the pioneers of virtual good in the online dating industry by allowing users to send virtual roses to other users that cost from $2 to $10. The beauty of virtual goods is that margins are high, since goods essentially only cost as much as the bandwidth required to serve them, which is generally almost zero. I spoke with Ali Moiz from Peanut Labs, a social monetization company that focuses on virtual goods and currencies.

1. What is the margin on each item sold?
Very high. There is little or no marginal or production cost once you setup an economy, so for game companies this is in the 90% or higher range.

2. What percentage of your users actually buy virtual goods?
10 – 20% buy it using credit cards, another 30 – 40% get it for free by doing surveys and offers through Peanut Labs Media and companies like us.

3. What are the biggest obstacles in selling virtual goods?
Creating something that users want and need, and that is relevant to the community.

4. What are the most popular types of virtual goods sold?
3 main categories: functional, status items, decorative. All 3 play a major role.

5. Advertising Model

Description: Sites that rely on advertising, sell advertisements against their traffic. In basic terms: the more traffic you have, the more you can charge for ads (additional demographics about your site’s visitors, such as age, gender, location, or interests, also affects the amount you can charge advertisers to place ads on your site).

Examples of the Advertising Model: Yahoo! (), MySpace (), Tweet Later

I spoke with Dewald Pretorius from TweetLater, whose site relies on a unique variation of the advertising model in which users are able to bid on daily sponsorships on his site. When researching the site, I found that the average bid amount for a completed auction was $50-$80. Predictably, most of the users that won the sponsorship auction also linked out to TweetLater web site from their Twitter profile — driving more traffic and potential bidders back to the site.

1. Is TweetLater profitable?
Yes, absolutely! I run my business with very low overhead costs, and TweetLater has been profitable since the very start when I monetized it in February 2009.

2. How long did it take TweetLater to implement a business model?
I started TweetLater in April 2008, and ran it as a completely free service until February 2009. That period allowed me to build a solid user base, which was very willing and keen to dive into the paid side when I released it. Personally I think some people are too anxious to start making money immediately and underestimate the value of being patient and first building a reputation and user base.

3. How long did it take to get your first customer?
After I announced TweetLater Professional? If I remember correctly, it was about 10 minutes after I made the announcement that I got the first subscription. I might be wrong. It could have been 5 minutes.

4. How many users do you have right now?
TweetLater has around 71,000 users, and is steadily growing by around 600 users every day, seven days a week.

5. What are the biggest obstacles that TweetLater has for getting members to pay?
It is never easy to monetize something that sits on top of a free service. I have done that successfully, and logically it is because folks feel they get real value for their money. Maintaining and increasing the value proposition is one of the things I think of every single day. I believe that giving people a free trial of TweetLater Professional has contributed to its success. People can test-drive it with no commitments and no catches before deciding whether it is the right service for them. I believe it demonstrates respect for the users, as well as confidence in the value that the service provides.

Conclusion

This post covered just a small number of the many business models available to web startups. Please feel free to use the comments below to discuss these models and others that you may be using or considering for your startup.

Posting the YouTube ™ link in your status update provides a measurable distribution channel allowing syndication of your video through fans’ newsfeeds. It affords customers the opportunity to share with family and friends who are potentially searching for products and services, leading to increased views and positive sentiment.

3. MySpace ™ Status Updates:

Posting the YouTube link or MySpace video link to  video in status updates creates consistency across platforms and encourages employees and customers to post. It affords customers the opportunity to share with  family and friends who are potentially searching for your service or product, leading to increased views and positive sentiment.

4. LinkedIn® Status Updates:

Posting a YouTube link to statuses allows for exposure among influencers and other contacts and encourages employees and customers to post, increasing relevant viewership.

5. Twitter ™ Status Updates:

Tweet your video through work and encourage customers to tweet. This affords followers the ability to resend to their followers, allowing promotion of the community and increasing the probability of your video going viral.

6. Embed Video on Blog:

Embedded code to your blog coupled with written and video content provides prospective customers a comprehensive overview of what to expect. Embedding can easily be shared with friends and creates another distribution channel, which maximizes viral potential.

7. Embed Video on MySpace Profile:

You can embed video on your profile through albums and tagging friends, allowing consistent branding across platforms. Embedding video also enables feedback from prospective clients.

8. Facebook Page URL Options:

Posting the video link allows prospective customers to find all the necessary information in one place.
Erica Campbell has experience across multiple industries including automotive, real estate, heavy equipment, travel, sports and entertainment. Campbell joined Dominion Enterprises in 2004 and currently serves as the Senior Manager of New Media Marketing for For Rent Media Solutions. Her experience includes developing, executing, optimizing and analyzing social media strategic plans across multiple channels including blogs, social networking sites, video sharing sites and other conversational media. She spends a great deal of time building relationships with social media influencers, bloggers and new consumer business to generate awareness of clients and products. Campbell is also responsible for managing the email marketing campaigns. In addition, Campbell is an industry speaker and conducts added value Webinars for customers as well as training for For Rent Media Solutions employees nationwide.

erica.campbell@forrent.com | www.ForRent.com
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Optimization Summits founder, Tami Siewruk, speaks with (from left to right) Duncan Alney, Mark Juleen, Christopher Penn, Tami Siewruk, Mack Collier, Geno Church, Erica Campbell, Jason Falls and Jay Ehret about trending topics in social media.

What do you think the opportunity  do you see for brands using social media?

Optimization Summits founder, Tami Siewruk, speaks with (from left to right) Duncan Alney, Mark Juleen, Christopher Penn, Tami Siewruk, Mack Collier, Geno Church, Erica Campbell, Jason Falls and Jay Ehret about trending topics in social media.

Where do you think Social Media is going? We look forward to hearing your views!