After catching his talk at the Inbound Marketing Summit 2009 on launching a product in social media, I was lucky enough to get Loic alone for a quick interview. Watch as he gives you 3 tips on launching in the new media age, and I mis-pronounce everything.

You can find Loic Le Meur at www.twitter.com/loic and his product at www.seesmic.com

I don’t know about you, but I’m not on my social networking sites 24/7. it’s more like 2/7, because really – I’ve got a business to run! Some people may find this a little contradictory, as I run a social media marketing company, yet we’re always telling people to find balance between the two. If you aren’t working to keep your business growing and gaining clients, then all the social media marketing in the world won’t do you any good.

But, I digress. My tangent is distracting us all for the point of today’s rant.

Pointless, cheezy, salesy, uninvited emails via facebook.

I recently received this from someone in one of my groups:

When Britains Got Talent start Susan Boyle took the stage in front of the three judges, it was all the audience could do to stop themselves from laughing. In front of them stood a 47 year old woman with an unpolished appearance who was certain to humiliate herself in front of millions. Then she did something extraordinary. She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the West End musical Les Misérables so beautifully that she received a standing ovation and is the talk of the UK. Her audition which has since been put on Youtube has received tens of millions of views.

So what business lessons can Susan teach us?

1) Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Susan was written off before she’d sung a note. But not everything is always as it seems, sometimes it’s worth giving people and services a chance before writing them off. They may just surprise you.

2) A book is always judged by its cover.

The audience’s reaction to Susan was hardly surprising. Were we all being cynical? Well yes, but that’s human nature. Even though your product or service may be outstanding, people tend to make quick judgements. Is your website, packaging or marketing conveying the right message?

3) Be extraordinary

Susan isn’t a huge hit because she sang the best version of” I Dreamed A Dream”, there are better versions around if you care to look. She’s a huge hit because people were not expecting her to be so good. The fact that she exceeded everybody’s expectations made her performance extraordinary and something that people want to talk about. Is your company creating things worth talking about?

Finally a big congratulations to Susan who will continue to chase her dream. Something we should all be doing.

DO YOU SEE HOW LONG THIS IS?

And it’s not even from a friend. I don’t know who any of these people are. This some yodle esposing yodle-um for (who’s exactly?) benefit. I don’t get it.

1. FACEBOOK IS NOT A BLOG

your blog is a blog. posting a link to your blog is cool. I can read it if I want. It doesn’t clutter up my facebook page. that’s cool.

2. FACEBOOK IS FOR FRIENDS

I have friends that ask me questions about my business on facebook. I answer them.  That’s it. if it’s more than one paragraph I call them or email them offline. Every business owner I know and respect handles this the same way, so you might want to also.

3. FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS SEND SPAM

And you shouldn’t either.

R

I just found a great new tool for keeping tabs on the brands using social media, it’s called Tracking Twitter and you can check it out at http://trackingtwitter.com/brands. Why would you want to though?

1. Look for your contemporaries

I get asked nearly every day “why would I want to use twitter?” which is kind of silly, because no one person can tell someone they’ve just met what social media tool will appropriately connect them to their consumer. I don’t know you – I don’t know what you sell and I don’t know how you sell it. I don’t know the things that will kill you online: like being lazy, or having terrible customer service (when your csr hangs up on them you can bet they’ll twitter you about it), or having a terrible product. These are all things my clients and I talk about, and find the best course of action. Of course you probably want to see what your competition, kindred companies, and clients are doing – so a tool like Tracking Twitter makes that very doable. I am sure I’ll be using it to watch brands grow in their strategy, and see what their results are once these profiles have been active long enough to gain measureable results.

2. Learn what works

@Jetblue (the twitter handle for Jet Blue Airlines) just rocks. The airline presence is fantastic and in addition to giving you a headsup on specials, they give you great travel tips that will make your trip easier (security tips) and less boring (answers to questions about what movies are playing). If you do any kind of travel service then you should learn from them. Really.

3. Get comfortable with your persona

The 2nd most common question I get about using twitter (and any social media really) is “what should i say?” my answer is typically “what should you say?”. It comes back to the who are you/what do you do conversation I mentioned earlier. For tech companies and b2b firms there is often a tendency to be authoritative, to provide information (which typically means to be as boring as you can possibly imagine). Burger King has an icon – the king – and that’s who is doing their twitter-ness (check out @burgerking). He’s hilarious, and totally in sync with their current branding. On the tech side check out @delloutlet and any of the other dell twitter-feeds – it’s estimated that dell’s done over 1 million in business via their twitter handles in 2008… take that those of you who tell me twitter is a total waste of time!

The biggest and most important thing I can tell you is to think – think about what your goal is on social media, what you want to accomplish, and who should be working toward this goal – then you will have the direction to make “what should i say” a simple question with an easy answer. ’cause that’s what it should be.

@rebekah_king

Typically I frown on simply ‘reposting’ articles, but this one is so good it’s my exception to the rule this month:

Deepening Customer Loyalty Through Social Media
by Aaron Strout

When was the last time you said to yourself: “Wow, I’d recommend this product or service to a friend”? Within the last month? Six months? If you have to think about this question, you’ve already made my point. Over the last 50 years, outsourced manufacturing, poor customer service and an overall commoditization of products and services have served to erode consumers’ affections for most brands.
While the idea of diminished customer loyalty may be disheartening–after all, if customers aren’t loyal, they don’t rave about your brand to other customers and they certainly can’t be tricked into forking over a greater share of their wallet–all hope is not lost. In fact, smart brands like Dell, Ford and Sears are starting to see increases in brand affinity as a result of their social endeavors.

Before we talk about some of these examples, let’s start by reminding ourselves why loyalty is important. Arguably the biggest benefit is highlighted in an article by loyalty guru Fred Reichheld, titled “Leading with Loyalty.” Based on research Reichheld’s employer, Bain & Company, conducted last year, “companies that enjoy [the] ‘loyalty effect’ grow at better than twice the average for their industry.”

If doubling your growth rate isn’t enticing enough in and of itself, Reichheld also proves in his landmark book, The Loyalty Effect, that “as little as a 5 percent increase in retention can improve a company’s bottom-line profitability between 25 percent and 85 percent, depending on the industry.” Not too shabby, but also easier said than done.

Let’s take a look at how a few well-known companies are using social media to dramatically improve their customer loyalty:

•   Dell Computers: As recently as 2005, Dell was struggling mightily to keep its customers. Complaints of poor customer service combined with a scathing barrage of bad press stemming from stories of laptop batteries catching on fire led CEO and founder, Michael Dell to tap current “chief blogger” Lionel Menchaca to help right the ship. Through a campaign of open and honest communications via the Dell blogs and proactive participation by its employees in Dell’s support forums, customer satisfaction and loyalty have started to come back in full force.

•   Ford: It’s no secret that the auto industry has come under heavy scrutiny over the last 12 months. The big three in particular have suffered huge PR and sales hits during that time as they attempt to figure out what’s next. During that time, Ford made a giant leap into the world of social by bringing in social media head Scotty Monty. Through tools like Twitter, Scott’s blog and Ford’s Sync My Ride community, they have slowly begun to win back customer and influencer confidence. Ford still has a long road ahead, but they are reaping the benefits of being reconnected.

•   Sears: you’ll be surprised to find out that the company you used to know as Sears is not your father’s department store. In fact, you may be surprised to know that Sears launched its SKU community last summer, and now has more than 200,000 members.
According to VP of Community, Rob Harles, Sears is starting to see some little wins with their community: “Overall, customers are starting to feel that they are being listened to, core members skew toward being some of the most valuable/profitable customers and the ability to reach out to customers and solve their issues proactively is definitively turning around customer perceptions.” Rob mentioned that in one extreme case, the SKU community turned a client from “I would never shop with you again” to “I have put my store card back in wallet.”

If Dell, Ford and Sears can do it, why can’t you?
For anyone interested, here are a few steps to help get you started:

1.   Listen first – You may already know why your customers aren’t as loyal as they might be. If you don’t know, you should start by listening to what they are saying.

2.   Engage – Unless you are one of the lucky few brands that instill passion in your base, think about giving your customers a reason to engage with you. This is most easily and simply accomplished by offering compelling content that is not about your company’s products, but is germane to the customers’ lifestyle. Wrapping this content in social tools makes it more scalable and repeatable.

3.   Measure – If you are diligent about putting steps one and two into practice, make sure you measure. Not only will it help you gauge the effectiveness of your program, it can help you get more funding to fuel it–especially during tough economic times like we’re living through now.

I read an interesting article this morning from eMarketer Daily about marketing to High School and College students.

More than six out of 10 US high school and college students surveyed “never” or “hardly ever” read marketing e-mails, according to an October 2008 survey by eROI. The majority of respondents said companies were not effectively speaking to them personally through e-mail.

And look at this little graph – text messaging is often the preferred communication method!

I’ve done quite a bit of marketing to High School & College students for my clients via Facebook and MySpace and have fantastic successes by keeping our messaging in the tone and manner that the students use. We don’t say “Would you like to join our fan page” we say “Hey there, we’ve just setup the fan page so we can do giveaways and stuff, here’s the link if you’re interested”. Fortunately for us, MySpace & Facebook both have SMS alerts for users, so part of our great response is undoubtedly do to our recipients being able to reply via their mobile phones.

But are you ready to embark on the world of SMS messaging? For some it’s a hard question to answer. First timers rarely have a database of cellphone numbers in their back pocket, so list purchasing is often your first recourse – and that can get expensive. What would you do with it anyway?

One bar we know of sends a SMS message (aka Text) to their subscribers with the daily special, and that could be broadened to a message containing what teams are playing on their tv’s that night, or what band is playing on that night. Ever noticed a commercial on the TV saying “just text PIZZA to 23434″? That’s how American Idol handles much of their voting process.

As with any marketing tool there’s a myriad of ways to employ both SMS and Email Messaging, what you must always ask yourself is “What does my audience want to hear?” and “What will inspire my audience to take action?”. A message saying Our new Phone system is the best solution for VOIP is much less likely to do you any good compared to Win a free sfsd phone, the same one that saved XYZ company $300 last month, just text MINE to 23453″. When you can get out of your head (stop thinking about what do I want to say), and you get into the mindset of what your audience wants to hear – the results come immediately after.

While doing my morning reading I stumbled upon a great question:

Are clicks and impressions still the standard for online advertising success?

As a publisher, are clicks and impressions still the standard for online advertising success? If not, what are you attaching every dollar to? Social media platforms like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter allow you to spread a message quickly to a captive audience, but what good are 20,000 friends and one million video views if there is no direct dollar amount associated to it? An impression and a click are tied to a dollar, but if you’re not using these as the benchmark then what good is your inventory?

So are clicks and impressions still the standard, or can you convince your CFO that having friends is more profitable?

I’m finding more often that this is a common question, as the traditional marketing methods give way to the more interactive and social mediums. It can all be very confusing (I know, I’ve inspired many MANY headaches), but there are some simple things to know which may clear this confusion up.

Having friends (or fans or peeps or followers) can be thought of as building a bigger vehicle for marketing delivery. The more traditional rules of marketing still apply: we must create a COMPELLING message that inspires the viewer to TAKE AN ACTION. No matter how big the vehicle is, the accessories, the finishing touches, the reaction it inspires in the audience is key.

All successful marketing programs accomplish this – whether it’s a branding campaign whose call to action is forward this item to a friend, or a sales campaign which asks you to click and order. All the impressions in the world will not take the place of an impactful message.

Some of the things that have changed is in the audience:

• they hate fakeness – unless the gimmick is how fake you are and then it’s funny
• they want to be entertained
• stop being so stuffy – (ref: entertainment…don’t take yourself and your brand so seriously)
• If you promise something (award, giveaway etc), GIVE IT… and let everyone know about it

Now get out there and make some friends!

Rebekah King
Social Media Marketing Maven
www.rebekahking.com
www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahking

Social Media is media that utilizes a social platform – its meant to interact with a person in a manner similar to person-person interaction. This means video, photo-sharing, blogging, profiles, tagging, commenting on eachother’s items, friend circles, groups, and on and on and on.

What makes social media so special is it’s two main applications: social media optimization and social media marketing. Social media optimization is the trick/expertise/pure luck of creating social media in a way that will encourage it’s spread (aka. viral) across the web. This is where rules like no videos over 2 minutes come in to play – 2 min is a very viral-able time block. Social media marketing is focused more on the pr, content, and collaborative aspects of social media – this isn’t too far off from traditional marketing and pr… just add tech and a strong narrowing of topics/audience (there’s blogs for people who love radishes for goodness sakes!)

Great info, but why should you care?

If your business is ever impacted by referrals (meaning you ever get referrals or want to get referrals) or your reputation matters at all (people talk you know), then you might want to make sure that you have an “ear to the ground” in the areas that your clients are talking. Even if you aren’t’ advertising, or spending any real marketing dollars in social media – because your clients are there… they are on Facebook telling their girlfriends and coworkers and random friends about how their back doesn’t ache any more thanks to the chiropractor Aunt Jemima referred them to. Tourist Sally is posting reviews of the restaurants she ate at while on vacation in San Diego. Lesley the promo products lady is writing recommendations of her favorite colleagues that EVERYONE’s friends can see.

I was talking with a restaurateur friend of mine last week that said he didn’t want to work on the internet – people say bad things and you can’t do anything about it (which isn’t true – you can – it’s what I do for a living) – and he’s not sure he wants to get involved. I understand what he means.. don’t you? If people “run their mouths” illegitimately in real-life, imagine what they could do with a veil of anonymity via online reviewing services!!

But wouldn’t you rather know?

in the next episode we’ll talk about how you can keep track of your reputation (and build referrals) online… stay tuned!

Reading today on mashable I came across this awesome example of social media in use for the everyday needs, and just had to share it with you guys.

Parents love their kids, but everyone deserves a break once in awhile. If you don’t have family or friends nearby who would be willing to watch your children while you and your partner grab some together time, or even if you’re a single parent who just needs a break, having access to a trustworthy babysitter is a sanity saver.

It can be tough to find the right person to care for your kids if you’re new to your neighborhood or if you’re a new parent. If you’re in need of a caregiver-for-hire for a few hours, then here are some ideas on how to use the Web to find someone near you.

One thing worth noting is that there are a number of websites out there that can help you find a sitter for the kids. You can divide them up into two groups: sites that you can use for free; and sites that charge some kind of fee (normally a subscription fee) to give you access to their database of child care providers.

You can read the rest here: http://mashable.com/2008/10/17/how-to-find-a-babysitter-online/