Posts Tagged → twitter
Social Media “Marketing” is Just PR in a Snazzy Suit
There’s a simple truth to the social media marketing world that people don’t talk about: the term social media “marketing” is something of a lie. More precisely, while there are scammers and spammers aplenty, if you’re using social media as a means to bring in revenue by establishing a dialog between your brand and those who are interested in your product or services, you can’t really call what you’re doing social media “marketing.”
It sounds an awful lot like social media PR to me.
It’s something I have to get off my chest. I run a social media marketing firm, sure. But many of the skills that I use, either in advising clients or in using the various channels, reads like what you should do when you’re being a responsible public relations representative who’s reaching out to a journalist to pitch a story. Everyone’s a potential source of a sudden massive Twitter revolt, so you need to treat everyone you encounter online as if they had the potential to direct the attention of a hundred thousand potential clients at your brand. With that thought in mind, here’s a quick primer on how to convert those traditional PR skills into social media marketing ones.
Lose the Flab From Your Social Media Regimen
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Since the holidays, I’ve been on the South Beach diet to lose some of those 20 extra pounds that magically appeared on my midsection this year (wonder how that happened!). That’s inspired me to start providing my social media clients with a lean, mean regimen for their social media program. It’s worked for them, and you can use it, too. While this is a post that’s more appropriate on my social media business blog (where it will get to eventually), it’s valuable PR strategy, too. It is lean, mean, and anyone can do it to get more out of their social media efforts.
Here’s your new social media workout plan:
- Hit up your social media services 3x a day for about 10 minutes each time. Identify which services are most effective for you and use those more often. I generally say 10 minutes before work, 10 at lunch, and 10 minutes after the day is done.
- If you’re using an analytics program like Google Analytics, use your natural search queries to tell you what phrases people are finding you for. Are those phrases you want to be found for? Then use them in your social media. Is your audience coming from keywords that don’t convert? Use better keywords in your social media.
- If you aren’t measuring analytics, go to Google.com/analytics and do so.
- Basic morning routine for Twitter:
- Identify two or three twitter personalities that always have something interesting to say. Each morning, retweet something they’ve posted.
- Find a blog or two that writes in your space. Tweet links to the interesting articles that they’ve written
- Write a blog yourself? Make sure that you put your content in your tweets.
- Look over your replies and DM’s and answer all appropriately
- Finally, using a client like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop, set up searches for words or phrases that are pertinent to what you do. Reply to other twitter posters who post using those terms.
- This should take 10 – 15 minutes every day, once you get it to a system.
- Basic afternoon routine for Facebook;
- Check out your wall. Have you gotten new fans? Welcome them with a quick message.
- Have you had any kind of event recently? Post pictures / video / whatever on it.
- Run Facebook searches for terms that are pertinent to your organization. Have your fan page become a fan of other organizations that have similar interests.
- Look over your wall for comments and reply; empty out inbox and reply as well
- Post 2 -3 links to interesting information that is related to your organization
- This takes 10 – 15 minutes when it’s done
- LinkedIn Evening routine
- Look for questions on the groups that you belong to. Answer two that you can legitimately offer an interesting and informed opinion on.
- Been to a networking event? Run searches on people who’s cards you have. Find them on LinkedIn and follow ‘em.
- Has anyone in your network changed job positions or posted another important status update? Drop ‘em a note commenting on it.
- This is 5 – 10 minutes of work.
- Blogging / Internet Evening routine
- Set up Google Alerts on keywords that are pertinent to your interests. Get emails daily and check the links that Google sends you out. Generally, I recommend an alert on your brand, on your market, and on yourself as well. Read the alerts for links / ideas for the other social media outlets and click through on the interesting ones.
- Leave comments on any blog post that you actually read. Yes, every single one. They have to have something interesting to say, but don’t need to be Shakespeare.
- This takes 10 minutes or so.
There’s your daily workout. Stick to it for 3 months and come back for a checkup.
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Twitter for Charity? German Man Takes Charity & Social Media to New Level
The 999999Followers Project was created to give a twitter account to a charity with 999,999 Twitter followers and a place to broadcast its message.
(Berlin, Germany) – July 10, 2009 – Twitter, the new Internet service that lets you speak your mind in 140 characters or less – has proven a communication boon for many. One of the newer trends that’s just emerging in Twitter, though, is a growing effort to use the social media tool for charity. While some people turn their twitter images different colors in support of a cause, or try to get their fellow “tweeple” to click on a link to raise funds, Christian Rubarth of Berlin Germany is looking to accomplish something that uses Twitter for charity more directly.
“I want to get 999,999 followers on my twitter account 999999Followers,” Christian says. “Once I’ve gotten that many, I will give my twitter account to a charity. Since Twitter lets you change your name, they won’t have to keep the 999999Followers name once I give the account away.”
Which charity will get the twitter account? Everyone who follows 999999Followers on Twitter will be given a chance to vote for which charity he or she feels is most deserving at 999999Followers.broken-monitor.com, and the charity with the most votes will receive it. Tying the reach and interactivity of social media with a desire to do good, this web designer is aiming high: he wants to get all 999,999 followers before Dec 31, 2009.
It may seem like an odd thing to do, giving a charity a twitter account with a giant following, but it makes a lot of sense in this new world of social media. Giving a charity a list of just under 1 million contacts all across the globe who are service-minded and web-savvy is a huge resource pool that any charitable organization could make good use of. Only a few Twitter users have followings in the millions, such as Ashton Kutcher and CNN News, and they’ve seen the power of Twitter to raise funds and awareness.
It’s a lofty goal that Christian has set for himself – and the Twitter community – but if other Twitter users like Ashton Kutcher can get a million users just for fun, he figures that he can accomplish the same thing for charity.
Want to help? Log in to twitter.com or sign up if you don’t have an account and tell your followers something like: “Chris from @999999Followers is looking to get 999,999 followers by Dec 31 & give his acct. to charity. Follow him & please RT!”
Contact:
Christian Rubarth
press@broken-monitor.com
http://twitter.com/999999followers
Skype: pr999999followers
About @999999followers
The 999999Followers Project is the brainchild of 40 year old web designer Christian Rubarth of Berlin, Germany. He wants to get 999,999 Twitter users following him by December 31 so that he can give his account to a charity at the start of 2010. Help him out by following him at http://twitter.com/999999followers and spreading the word through Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else you hang out online.