The Social Media Marketer

Used wisely, social media content can get take-your-breath-away results. You post something (for free, I might add), and people not only read what you've written and "like" the post, but they send it to all of their friends, who may send it to all of their friends, like a tidal wave of your personally branded content, rolling effortlessly through cyberspace.

It sounds so easy!  It can be--when you know how to make social media content that rocks.   But there are a few things to keep in mind when creating it.

1. Keep it Fresh. No one is going to "like" or forward content that is boring, repetitive, or old news. Stay on the cutting edge so you can offer up fresh content. How do you do this? Spend a little time each day reading up on your topic, and then think creatively yourself. How can you put a new spin on the topic? What are the latest developments?

2. Develop a Voice. Depending on what you're marketing, develop a voice that matches your content. Candy brand Skittles tweets pithy little snippets every day. They're funny, and people look forward to the original little quotes like, "Building a shipyard for my gravy boats." Funny little sayings are perfect for candy, but what works well for your brand? Do you need to be funny? Authoritative? Wise? Consider your audience and the image of your brand, and develop a voice that fits.

3. Create an Editorial Calendar. Posting clever social media content once in a while doesn't help you much. To become a social content media force you've got to be reliable both in timing and quality. To meet this goal, develop an editorial calendar for your content and stick with it. Using keywords or categories important to your readers, lay out what topics you'll cover and when you'll publish them. Then all you have to do is follow through or hire somebody else to handle content production.

4. Consider Your Timing. When creating your social media content editorial calendar, keep in mind that timing can be everything. If you create content about things to do around the 4th of July but you don't publish it until the 4th of July, you've missed a crucial opportunity. Think about when your readers need the information, and give it to them at the perfect time, not too early and not too late.

5. Be Helpful. Why do people seek out content? To meet needs. Those needs can be as varied as product reviews, medical advice, home improvement ideas, or simply entertainment. Decide which needs you're trying to fill, and be as helpful as possible. Some venues, such as Facebook, give you wonderful opportunities to be helpful. Let's say someone has a problem with one of your products and posts about it on Facebook. You can respond to that concern and help to solve the problem, and other consumers can see that you are helpful and willing to help your customers even with small problems.

6. Keep it Short. Twitter has set a new standard for conciseness. It's not easy to create a meaningful, helpful message in 140 characters, but the better you get at it, the better your writing will be in all areas, not just on Twitter. To practice getting the most bang out of the smallest number of words, use action verbs, and get to the core of your message as soon as possible. Think in terms of newspaper headlines: how much can you tell readers about the topic in as few words as possible.

Once you find your social media content voice and you have a surefire editorial calendar, you can work on constantly improving your content. The better it gets, the more readers you'll have and the better your brand will look in this dynamic marketplace. Start some waves of your own!  Flood the market with your clever, helpful, and cutting-edge ideas.

Sybase, an SAP mobile intelligence company, recently reported that over 70% of the world's population now has a mobile phone. In the United States, 9 out of 10 people have mobile phones! Consumers are using their mobile devices for everything from locating businesses on the go to getting recommendations about where to eat lunch, and social media content is a growing factor in how people use their mobile devices.

Clearly, ignoring mobile devices is a grave mistake for marketers. But how do you go about using mobile social media content to get consumers to pay attention to you or your brand? You may already have social media content for your business, but how do you get mobile consumers to pay attention to it?

1. Keep Mobile in Mind. Many businesses still think of mobile marketing as shrinking down their website to the size of a mobile device, but that method doesn't work. Mobile devices are small, and people on the go don't have time to sort through an entire website to find what they're looking for.

The mobile web experience can be less-than-friendly, and it's going through growing pains, but businesses can become more mobile friendly by building apps that do just one or two things really well instead of trying to offer everything from one website. For example, American Airlines has developed a mobile app that lets travelers check in to their flights. That's all it does, but it's very useful for that one task. 

What can you offer to people on the go? Consider what you have to offer, and develop social media content specifically to fit that need.

2. Experiment with QR Codes. Short for Quick Response Codes, QR codes are those quirky black-and-white boxes showing up on ads, business cards, plant containers, you name it. Since QR codes haven't been around very long, creative minds are still thinking of new ways to use them before they're pigeon-holed to just one or two applications. Take advantage of this technological development time, and use QR codes to spread your social media content.

Mobile devices can scan QR codes to be taken directly to a mobile web page, which could give information about a product, show a video, link the user to a content-rich blog, or introduce customers to coupons or special offers. Place QR codes on business cards, advertisements, or even physical advertising displays to get connected with potential customers.

3. Provide Critical Content. Mobile users don't have time to sit down and read lengthy articles, so it's important to develop social media content that is not just user friendly, not just engaging, but critical to the people you want to reach. Where do you expect to be reaching your consumers? If you expect to reach them in a grocery store, don't offer them videos to watch because they won't have the time or attention span for watching them.
 
Instead, offer them dinner menu ideas, complete with links to recipes so they know what to buy while they're still in the store. If you prove to your consumers that you're helpful to their critical needs, they'll turn to you again and again, and that leads us to our final tip:

4. Start a Relationship. Once consumers know they can count on you to give them just enough (but not too much) information, that you give them what they need where they need it, you can start a relationship. Social media content is all about relationships, which is why it's so helpful for marketing purposes. Back when marketers just put an ad in newspapers or magazines, there wasn't much feedback except with customers who actually showed up in the store.

Today, businesses can have two-way relationships with customers through a variety of different social media venues. As long as you're not a nagging, fill-out-this-form kind of business, your mobile site can be an introduction to your brand, and give you further opportunities to connect more substantially.

Entice consumers to your company's full website, blog, or Facebook page, where they can participate in surveys, conversations, and more. End blog posts with questions, to elicit meaningful conversations with consumers.

The sooner you develop effective means to communicate with mobile users, the sooner you'll start channeling the powerful marketing tools available to you through social media content. You'll be better able to meet consumer's needs and develop relationships with them that will endear your brand to them--and to their friends who see that they "like" you.

If you’re a savvy business owner with your ear to the ground, you can’t deny that blogging has a lot of potential to get your website traffic and your company new customers.  Perhaps you have read about the success of blogging’s early adopters, such as Pete Cashmere of Mashable.com. In 2005, Pete started writing about the technologies that he loved, and today Mashable is one of the most popular tech blogs in the entire world with 50+ MILLION pageviews every month.

Social media is growing in more ways than one.  With more sites than can be counted, social media has become the craze in advertising and promoting your business for free.  However, the question is – is your social media content working for you? 

Here are four questions you should ask yourself to find out if what you are posting is really effective at promoting you and, most importantly, your business.

Keeping your social media content fresh and engaging is a constant challenge. There has been much discussion recently about which works best--conversation or links.

On January 11, 2012 Dan Zarella – a recognized top social media thought leader - published on his blog results of a recent study of this issue. After analyzing 100,000 tweets, Zarella found that tweets containing links had 60 to 80 percent chance of being re-tweeted. This is hard evidence that broadcasting interesting content works, at least on some social media platforms.

Social media networks are a powerful, and usually free, outlet for marketing your business to hundreds of thousands of potential clients and customers. They provide interaction, opportunities for invaluable backlinks, and the possibility of your content going viral in a matter of minutes.

So why are some businesses incredibly successful with their social media content efforts while others struggle to maintain a following? The answer lies in knowing how to create compelling content for these audiences, so that you can lure them in. Consider the 7 following tips:

   1.  Choose Your Networks with Care

Social media marketing is all about the here and now. Everyone is trying to get their message out to the masses.  How does one use social media in a targeted and effective way? Consider these five social media marketing tips: