After several years of working with social media, it’s all falling into place neatly.

Here are some guidelines that I feel each of us needs to follow to become better members of the social media circuit.

1.It’s not marketing – in the traditional sense:

Social media marketing is something of a misnomer because social media is not marketing, at least not in the traditional sense.

Here’s a snapshot of the touch-points needed for marketing. Notice that Social Media is only one element, and is more about the conversation.

When you hear the word ‘marketing’, there is a tendency to go by the old school rule of pushing the sale. For traditional marketers, the single-minded aim of marketing is to tell the client why they should buy and buy from them alone.

In social media marketing, the sale comes at the very last – if at all. Relationship building comes first. So, instead of telling your customers, “Buy XYZ from us because …” you will first find out about your customer, your community. What do they consider of value. Deliver that for FREE.

See? The sale is nowhere at the top of the agenda. Lose your sales message. Instead, show people you care.

It is this nugget of truth that many traditional marketers miss when they dive into social media marketing!

MyStarbucksIdea is an excellent example of how social media and marketing can go hand in hand. Ask people what they want. Then, give it to them!

2.It’s who YOU are that matters, not what your product is:

When it comes to social media, people like to relate to other people, not the brand or the product. They want the HUMAN behind the brand name. In a world so tightly connected and with so many problems, people need, more than ever to be connected. So a face, personality, and core values have to be linked to your brand. In fact, YOU are your brand.

Whatever you may be, be yourself. It matters. Use your own pictures, avatar and name when you network. Transparency and authenticity are the two pillars of social media success. Some people might think that an oversimplification or a tad clichéd. But, the truth is, people are attracted to these qualities. If you’re open and honest, if you have something sincere to communicate, people stop and listen. If you fake it, they leave!

If you want to know EXACTLY what transparency and authenticity mean, check out Jonathan Schwart’s blog. All sorts of comments are allowed, even the inane ones. Could you imagine the CEO of a company actually doing this stuff before social media?

3.Social media democracy at its best:

The successful social media mindset is characterized by the willingness to share and the desire to learn. Corporate bigwigs have to understand that PEOPLE are the force that powers their profit margins – and they had better connect with their customers on their terms. We are beginning to see this shift in the on-line market place and believe that in 2011, that level of accessibility and visibility will continue.

Social media also brings home the scary thought that your customers now have a lot of power. They may influence each other more than you can influence them! Dominos learned this the hard way when their video generated a buzz that gave them indigestion!

4.Give Value, Get Value:

When people come to your den, they want something of value. They are not there for idle chitchat. They don’t really care where you had coffee, or what you ate for lunch, unless it’s hugely entertaining, OR there is some relevancy in their lives to the story.

Nothing beats great content, whether it’s a blog post, a tweet, an article, a whitepaper, a video snippet or a podcast. If you’re an expert in your niche, give something of value to your customers. Not ALL of it – but some of it. Give them enough information for them to believe it worth their while to come back for more.

The social media mindset requires entrepreneurs to accept the notion that customers are your counterparts in the success formula. Dell understood this and used this knowledge when they cultivated a huge community of users across platforms with Twitter posts, Facebook and their network of blogs. They regularly interact with their clients, ask them for feedback and let them know of new arrivals. People know that they can go to the Dell blog for important information.

5.Don’t bite more than you can chew:

In traditional marketing, marketers are expected to know and dabble in everything. TV ads, PPC, SEO, mail campaigns and so on. But, social media, on the other hand, is a broad game. You have more tools that you can ever use – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, SyumbleUpon, MySpace, Ning… the list is unending. To date, there are over 250 social media sites, and that number is growing quicker that we all can keep up with. Some are real game changers.

Which ones will you choose? How many CAN you use without going insane?

You don’t have to be on all of these. Identify your business goals and close in on a couple of tools that help you achieve your goals most effectively.

What could your business goals be?

With social media, your aim is to:

• Build a community
• Expand your brand exposure
• Attract new prospects
• Network with existing/new customers
• Unleash viral marketing
• Gain and offer valuable content
• Knowledge sharing
• Achieving one-on-one relationship to ensure retention and long term value

So, Dell may use blogs, micrblogs and social networks but Blendtec achieved enough buzz using just one tool – YouTube.

Social media marketing is NOT the same as direct marketing. Understand that.

So, if you fill your blogs with sales pitches and believe that you are networking, you’ve got another think coming!

Social media sells by inviting a high level of user engagement. Its main aim is not to push the sale, but to prepare the ground work for people to meet, connect, trust and do business. We call this the Know-Like-Trust factor, and is a requirement for any long-term relationship. Isn’t it true, that one time sales are great, but repeat customers or strong referral sources are better?

That is why social media is a mindset, not just a toolset. This is also the reason why marketing specialists have to learn the rules of this game before they can market effectively. It’s great to see organizations like AMA launching webcasts, face-to-face workshops to retrain traditional marketers to help them become more, well, social.

Integrate your social media tactics into a game plan. Deploy it. Sit back and connect.

Enjoy the ride, and get ahead of the curve!

© 2010, TiffanyO.. All rights reserved.

In the interim, we’ll do a brainstorming activity today and hopefully leave the room with a great name!

Here’s that article I mentioned:

When creating a truly great company name, the number one consideration should be the level of “engagement.”

“Engagement?” you ask incredulously.

Yes… engagement.
While there are all sorts of naming strategies… metaphors, acronyms, coined/invented, key attributes, positive connotations, etc., the one common denominator that separates the mediocre from the memorable, is the degree to which the name engages the mind of the consumer. Most new business owners opt for company names that inform and describe, leaving nothing to the imagination. They often fail to realize that the context surrounding the name (the ad, the store sign, the proposal, the brochure copy, etc.) will define what they do, so the name can be free to describe how they do it. In other words, no customer will hear or see the name in a mental vacuum. Yet this is the way we often judge names when “brainstorming”. And it’s why focus groups are such

notoriously bad judges of good names. It’s not the people that are flawed, it’s the process itself. Most of the feedback takes the form of free associations, all in an effort to determine if a name is “good” or “bad.” It goes something like this…

Interviewer: “What do you think of the name Monster?”

Respondent: “Ew! They’re scary and dangerous!”

Interviewer: “What about Amazon?”
Respondent: “Jungle… drowning… snakes… piranhas…”

Interviewer: “Apple?”
Respondent: “A bad apple spoils the whole bunch.”

Interviewer: “Caterpillar?”
Respondent: “Squishy, soft, and squirmy.”

Interviewer to new business owner: “I think we can safely assume these would be bad brand names…”

So if it’s not a matter of free associations, then what determines a good name? Again, it’s that all important element known as “engagement.” Engagement is what causes you to lean forward, ask twice, invite more information and pursue the conversation. A good name should invite a discussion, start a conversation and “engage” the other person’s interest and attention. That’s why Amazon, even though it says nothing about what it does, works better than Books-A-Million. Amazon is open and inviting and Books-A-Million is literal and descriptive. Amazon speaks to the process…flowing, easy, abundant. Books-A-Million speaks to the products… books. And while Amazon leaves room for the company to grow in any number of directions, Books-A-Million leaves the company in a bind. I once heard an ad for a company called Just Brakes. Since they had outgrown this narrow niche, they adopted a new tag line… “We’re more than just brakes.”

Let’s take another example. Linens & Things is needlessly redundant since most people, after seeing a newspaper ad, or walking by the store window, will know the company sells linens and things. It would be better to use the name to capture some key strategic position or advantage, or to evoke a feeling or emotion. Is Linen & Things the best, the fastest, the biggest, the most service oriented, the trendiest? We simply don’t know. They have described but they haven’t evoked. They’ve explained but they haven’t engaged.

The objection I routinely hear is “But with names like these, no one will know what I do!” And that’s when I explain that trust is needed… trust in the power of context to fill in the blanks. That way the name is freed to paint a picture, engage the senses and position the brand to reflect not what you do, but how you do it.

So will any weird word work?

No.

Weird for weird sake will just leave the customer scratching his or her head in bewilderment of moving on in indifference. Bold, engaging names will create the desire to know more, and that’s where you need to be ready to tell the story. The name then becomes a segue to a larger story. It starts with the name and tagline and then continues to the :15 second elevator speech and beyond.

One of our clients we named was TKO Surgical. When asked if that’s a boxing reference, our client gives an emphatic “yes,” explaining that they have a mission to both defend and fight for their clients’ needs. They’ll champion their cause and remain in their corner until the last bell sounds. Their tag line? “Technically Superior.”

So whether a name is based on a metaphor, a key attribute, an acronym, or a positive connotation, the overarching goal is to create a name that engages. Perhaps that’s why Albert Einstein asserted that “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” If given the choice of engaging vs. informing, opt for a name that begs for more. It may seem weird, but the results can be wonderful.

Phillip Davis is president and owner of Tungsten Branding, business naming consultants specializing in brand creation, product naming, tag line development, corporate identity and strategic brand repositioning. Phil’s client list includes PODS, Team Logic IT and Sea Of Diamonds to name a few. His complete client list and company naming philosophy can be viewed at http://PureTungsten.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Phillip_Davis

© 2010, Tiffany Odutoye (@virtualpartner). All rights reserved.

This week I’ve been in many conversations about website and marketing content, and to me, it all boiled down to communicating in a compelling and memorable way. So, I thought I’d share some of the dialog with you from two sources: 1) from a collaborative partner on my team, Gerry Black; and also, from an article I posted entitled:

Creative vs Technical – the battle of website development! (on The Virtual Wire’s blog, Saturday, December 13, 2009).

Excerpts from Gerry’s article “Is Your Marketing Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish?”

Even though many of us become knowledgeable about effective marketing strategies, somehow, some of what we learn never makes it to the front line – the point where our sales proposition is laid bare in front of our prospect for consideration.

Here are three things that could be hurting your marketing results along with some suggestions on what you can do to correct them.

1. Thinking a web site is ready for prime-time because it was created by a “web site designer”.

This can be a costly misconception. Many web designers rely on their clients to supply content. Most web designers have no idea (or any interest) how to write compelling copy. Nor should they. That’s why they’re designers.

But here’s the problem: Many have no basic understanding of how to create a home page that presents a client’s selling message effectively. Unless a web site designer is getting content from someone who knows how to write and present a sales argument, chances are the site will do very little other than occupy a spot in cyber-space for which the client pays a monthly hosting fee.

Much of the content on web sites today has been cobbled together from brochures, competitors web sites and presentations that are equally as weak.

Don’t believe me? The next time you’re in surf mode, check out how many home pages – where the all important first impression occurs – are missing most critical selling element of all – an attention getting headline that offers a clear benefit to the reader. Happy hunting. Many home pages don’t even mention the word “you” in the copy. It’s all about me. Them. You know what I mean.

So, why would companies lay out all kinds of dough to have a web site designed and then cram the home page with copy the reader won’t respond to?

Many simply don’t understand that the best design in the world can’t make a web site with dull “me too” copy perform. If you think your home page copy falls into this category, it may be time to have it reviewed. You may be spending valuable marketing dollars driving customers to your web site only to have them click away in search of a competitor who has a better answer to the question they arrived with, ‘What’s in this for me?’

2. Not marketing to existing customers.

It’s amazing how many businesses will spend money trying to get new customers while leaving one of the greatest incremental revenue streams sitting untapped right in their own backyard in the form of their current customer list.

To win a new customer, you have to cut through the clutter like everyone else is trying to do. Not only is this becoming more difficult to do for even the most sophisticated marketers, it’s very expensive. Every year, the potential customers we chase after are bombarded with even more sales messages.

Meanwhile, our existing customers, the people who have already done business with us, represent a prime audience predisposed to hearing about other ways we can help them solve problems. We may have added a number of new services or products since they first became customers. If we don’t let them know about how we can continue to add value to their lives, they’ll probably find what they need from a competitor. Worse yet, the customer will probably end up buying from someone else simply because he or she didn’t know we could help them with their needs.

Keep your customers informed. Treat your customer list like the goose that laid the golden egg. By staying in touch, you’ll learn about new needs and wants and you’ll be able to minimize your cost of sales.

3. Not creating “pull” marketing material.

None of us likes to be sold. But we love to buy. Your marketing material should be carefully crafted so it grabs the reader by the lapels and creates the feeling that doing business with anybody else would be a huge mistake.

Every day, our eyes glaze over as we are hammered by ads, home pages, sales letters and brochures that just blah, blah blah us to death. And guess what? Millions of dollars go into creating these messages that don’t attract attention or create desire.

You see this all the time in the local community newspaper. The advertiser pays a king’s ransom to have the ad run in the paper. The ad ignores every fundamental of effective advertising. Instead, it announces what is being sold. And that’s exactly how it comes across to the reader. He’s being sold something.

If you’re not sure how to create marketing material that “pulls”, think about looking outside for a competent professional who will get you started down the right track from the beginning and help you create marketing materials that reflect an understanding of what’s working in today’s competitive selling environment.

You can’t push people into buying today any more than you could 20 years ago. But you can make sure you create the type of environment that gives you a chance to allow them to buy what you’re offering. Start getting into the habit of analyzing the sales and marketing messages that come at you during the day. Try to distinguish between those that just bounce off your sales resistance armor and those that make it past and create a desire within to learn more.

To be successful in today’s marketing and selling arena, we need every edge we can find. Especially those over which we have full control.

About The Author: Gerry Black is an independent copywriter and marketing consultant specializing in helping solo professionals and small businesses develop and implement simple, proven website marketing strategies that attract clients. Visit www.gerryblackcopywriter.com for his free report, “The #1 Website Mistake That Is Costing You Clients.”

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Don’t forget to check out The Virtual Wire’s blog post: Creative vs Technical – the battle of the website development! (on The Virtual Wire’s blog)

© 2008, Tiffany Odutoye (@virtualpartner). All rights reserved.