We all enjoy Facebook’s constant tinkering, right? Yeah, not really. They change so many things SO often it’s really hard to keep up.

I’m not at all coming up with an excuse for not posting a new Facebook tutorial since the one about setting up FBML fan pages. There are plenty of talented folks that built a profitable reputation around keeping track of those FB changes.

Improving User Engagement on Page

Well, a not-so-recent change is Photo tagging for Fan Pages, which allows users to tag themselves or their friends on pictures uploaded by fan pages. Such feature was heavily requested by marketers that wanted to share photos of business events, meetings, testimonials, etc., but were unable to tag the people on the images. Well, not 100% unable. If the admin uploading the pictures was friends with the people on the photo, you were able to tag them, which is clearly not a simple thing to achieve.

Here’s what the feature looks like on your Admin page:

The checkbox we highlighted is unchecked by default (thanks, FB!), so you need to go into your Admin area to enable it. Immediately, your fans are able to start tagging themselves.

As it is the case when a user tags a photo, the person tagged gets a notification, and their friends see it as well. With the super annoying useful ticker on the upper right, this repercussion is even bigger. You can see how this can have exponential growth fairly quickly.

Increasing Page Reach With Photo Tagging Contests

We recently ran a Facebook Halloween contest for the film Hesher. See the promo image we made for it:

In the past, we had 2 options when running such contests:

• Upload the images ourselves – all of fans see the update, but the person portrayed in it may or may not the picture’s been uploaded. Much less their friends
• Allow the users to upload images themselves – that makes sure all of THEIR friends see the photos, but 95% or more of the fan page is never aware of it

With page users being able to tag themselves, admins can upload the pics, publishing the info on their users’ newsfeeds, and users can still tag themselves, reaching their friends’ newsfeeds as well. Here’s what such feature looks like in action:

Want More Real-life Application For Photo Tagging?

How about $100,000 worth of it?

There’s a photography couple that built a 6 figure business using Facebook’s photo tagging capability. Yeap. They went from hobby photographers to popular Wedding Photographers in less than a year!

Can you think of a better application than that? Seriously, if you do, let us know your thoughts on the comments below.

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This week we were tasked with training a new hire for one of our clients. This company understood the importance of Google+ Pages for their business, and also wanted to revamp their LinkedIn presence. (Thanks in part to Lisa Barone). They knew it would take more hours to keep additional profiles updated and were looking to save money by hiring somebody internally.

Before we go into the details of the training, it is important to highlight the differences between having a social media consultant and starting an internal social media department. Each have their own pitfalls, but together, you get the best of both worlds.

Immediate Setbacks with Social Media Departments

These are the most common hurdles we experience when helping clients that already have a social media department:

• Not knowing where to find content within their business
• Trouble knowing where to post such content
• Understanding and engaging different platforms appropriately (Twitter vs Facebook vs LinkedIn, for example)
• Finding industry-specific networks/communities to interact with

And, even with departments that have been around for a while, the common phenomena of social media silos (the sm department becomes isolated) hurts their performance.

See also – Your Social Media Silo X Your Social Media Source [Conciliation]

However, there are important benefits to an internal department that you need to ponder when hiring a consultant.

Obstacles To Overcome When Hiring a Social Media Consultant

These are somewhat obvious, but we’ve had clients fail to understand:

• Being away from the office (sometimes in a different country), consultants will need a point of contact that is able to provide the resources needed
• Consultants will need help understanding the structure of the company and who to contact in order to clear proper content
• Successful campaigns such as live tweeting or a Reddit AMA are extremely hard to pull off remotely

And just to be clear – the obstacles I listed above are not impossible to overcome. They just require more time, which can make a campaign more expensive. So, how can you make the best of both both worlds?

Get Your Consultant To Install Your Social Media Deparment

This week, we didnt really install anything. We set the foundations to what will become a full-on social department in 12-18 months. We found applicants that were web savvy, had excellent writing skills, and were willing to work part-time, at least initially. We had amazing applicants, actually. But that is not about them.

For those of you that are affected by TL;DR, get this: Our agreement with client remains the same – no increased charges. As part of the agreement, we create a plan that suits their structure. They hire somebody part-time, hourly, to execute such plan. They get our know-how, but save considerably on labor.

In the end, we’re still fully responsible for the success of the campaigns – which makes us in charge of the part-time helper. But we save on travel time, because that part-time help can act as an “arm” for us. The company doesnt need to fear a part-timer screwing things up.

Would that apply to your company? The comments are yours – let us know how you maximize your sm department.

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It’s been a hectic week and with Halloween on a Monday, it’s easy to say this week will be crazy. But as the entire office was anxious to leave for Halloween, I started noticing that everybody updated their own profiles, completely ignoring our fan page or any other “corporate” profile.

Keeping the fan page updated, they say, it’s the job of the social media department. There are excellent reasons for it:

• Getting the tone right
• Knowing what can be made public
• Keeping up with appropriate frequency & schedule

See also: Is Your Company Stuck with A Social Media Silo?

But the biggest challenge is that the social media department is not the one producing content. WHAT???

Your Social Media Deparment Doesnt Make Products

Just like the Marketing or Customer Service departments are not directly responsible for product development – yes, they provide detailed feedback, insights, demographics, etc.. -, the real people behind what makes your company successful are usually social media “faceless”. Your sculptors, designers, engineers, technicians, and salespeople are way too often disengaged and oblivious to your corporate presence online.

Today, because of Halloween, this became extremely obvious as one engineer posted about turning one project he’s been working on into a costume. His social circle loved the idea, and had a manager not seen it, we wouldn’t have used it on our page. To make it a bit more personal, we tagged that engineer as the mind behind the idea and turned him into a Facebook celebrity (for a couple hours at least).

There are companies that suffer from social media anxiety, and despite doing awesome things, fail to communicate them. When this happens, it’s not because the staff isnt “savvy”; most of the time, as makers, they fail to recognize the public interest in what they’re working on. Clearly, this is not the case when they’re working on something that cant be made public yet. But we’ll get there.

See also – How Can Social Media Marketing Work For B2B Companies?

Your Social Media Source Fuels Your Silo

In the beginning of the post I mentioned a few issues why social media requires a certain level of training. The worst of those issues is a leak. Allowing sensitive information to be made public can lead to horrible PR nightmares and even lost deals. But there are ways around it.

1. Reach out to Product Managers

Product managers are able to tell you specifics about product development for a cool “behind-the-scenes” post, and they know exactly what can or cannot be made public. For snapshots of development or design, they may be able to put you in contact with a specific designer in charge of the project.

2. Come up with a Development Schedule

With the information gathered from your product manager, you’re able to compile a schedule and base updates and create unique content around it. This becomes an even more precious asset when combined with step 3:

3. Conciliate Development Schedule with Sales

Want to make your entire company happy? Once you compiled the development schedule, conciliate it with the Sales team to see what they’re looking to push, to whom, and when.

If you’re able to increase the buzz around a product launch based on carefully selected “snapshots” and funnel this buzz into a lead capture page you’ve just achieved social media nirvana.

Rinse, Repeat

To optimize the entire process, you can work with other managers to institute an internal shared server, and overtime, educate the staff to add snapshots under the “social media ready” folder.

Of course, this is a longer-term battle. We’ll address it more in depth in the near future. In the meantime, work on your schedules, and become an asset to every department in your company. If social media is an open communication channel, you need to be as well.

Have questions? Comments? Let us know!

QUICK PITCH

The SocialMediaGuerilla.com parent company has started a weekly “free SEO Tips” series where they share a complete SEO blueprint right on their blog. Since Social Media & SEO become more entangled daily, you should definitely check it out. And if you want your company reviewed, you may leave them a comment too.

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But Magazines Are ALL Turning To Mobile Lately

Yes, I’m well aware of the imminent print media doom, and to be quite honest, so does this particular publisher. Responsible for the most widely published Restaurant Guide on the Outer Banks – an expensive resort area famously know for its amazing seafood -, they’re also extremely well positioned with an online “arm” that extends far beyond being a local directory to becoming a marketing tool for the area.

Responsible for their online operations is Gene Williams, a huge advocate for mobile and its impending domination. 2 years ago, Gene decided that it wasnt enough that his company dominated Print and Online media for the Outer Banks. He knew a mobile version of their famous Restaurant Guide was necessary to seal his trifecta.

The OBX Restaurants Mobile App

Competing against huge local directory players in the mobile space, like Google Maps, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and even Foursquare (to certain extent), Gene focused exactly on what none of those apps have to create a tool that every hungry vacationer will use.

Because those apps were built for Nationwide (or worldwide) usage, they need users to feed their info. User Generated Content is how every single major app out there collects data, even if sometimes a manager is needed to complete the listing. But how do you collect data if there’s little-to-none usage?

You get the data yourself. Specially when you already have all of the data stored somewhere, like…. your own website AND on a 100+ page magazine.

Find Complete Menus, Directions, And More

Gene plugged all of the data that restaurant owners were already giving him for the other guides into the new mobile app. With that data, he’s now covered 99% of the restaurants on the beach, and users are able to quickly browse through all of them in a very simple interface, right on their phone. This saves a ton of time when you get to a crowded place and need to look for an alternative on the spot.

On this post about reducing friction in your services, Brenden Mulligan identified ways that emerging services saved time or optimized processes and how that was crucial to their success. In this instance, the usual friction begins when you need to load Google Maps, search for “restaurants”, find one that is closer (if your phone’s GPS doesnt go awire) and has good reviews, and then click thru their website. If you’re lucky, they have a PDF menu for download. That usually takes 15 minutes.

OBX Restaurants gives you all that data without any delay. And they’re able to show the entire menu natively, within the app. Much less friction.

A Bit Crowded, Yes

The app is in its very first release – they’re not calling it Beta, but it might as well be. Screen usage will definitely improve in upcoming updates – currently, only 50-60% of the screen is used to display content, and horizontal browsing is pretty terrible. Despite its interface hickups, however, the app serves its function amazingly well.

Below is a screenshot Gene shared with me that shows how he plans on updating the app. It’s a much cleaner interface that uses 100% of the screen.

Current app interface and future app interface layout

So, if you’re planning a vacation on the Outer Banks, you’ll have a much better time finding a restaurant using the OBX Restaurants app (link to Android Market). App is not yet available for iOS, but coming soon.

When you download it, let us know what you think. How would it help your search?

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This post will talk about social media on a bigger level than we often do. We’ve mentioned examples and strategies to make social media marketing work for sandwiches, indie films, and we talked about some huge social media fails. All in all, these companies dealt with customers directly.

Everybody that has “social media expert” on their twitter profile knows how social media is perfect for engaging your customers. Dan Zarella, in his book Zarella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness calls these folks “unicorn-and-rainbows marketers“ . They love “making friends” and “participating in the conversation”, which is basically what I’ve been trying my grandmother to do on Facebook. Not necessarily how I’d generate business to enterprise-level companies.

Why Should B2B Companies Even Bother With Social Media?

If your company sells software to integrate packing and shipping processes, you shouldnt expect 1 million fans on your Fan page.  But it doesnt mean you have no audience.

A recent CMO Survey for the American Marketing Association amongst 250 VP-level marketers from Fortune 1000 and Forbes top 200 B2B companies showed that Social media spending will increase 3% in the next 12 months and 9% over the next five years.

The first opportunity that social media offers the enterprise is the chance to solidify their reputation as experts.

Corporate Blogging Comes Into Play

When you think of Oracle, you may think of Forbes’ richest people list, with its CEO competing with Bill Gates for the #1 spot. They’re definitely not in the same level as Zappos or JetBlue when it comes to Social Media, but their Oracle Mix blog was created to bring customers, employees, and developers together.

Oracle’s blog offers, in a very social way:

• Peer-to-peer Customer Support
• The chance for employees to showcase their knowledge
• Staff integration – see that Melbourne meetup post? There are more similar posts

Having access to this tool can change the mind of an IT director looking at Oracle vs open-source software.

Research, Development, and Feedback Using Twitter

Sticking to the Oracle example, if we run a simple Twitter search for Siebel (one of their products), we see what customers need, what developers think, and Oracle can use that data to launch smaller campaigns.

For example – there were at least 4 or 5 “help wanted” posts from Middle East companies looking for Siebel experts. It’s not good for Oracle when companies want to use their software but cant find a developer that knows how to. So they may very well set up a Middle East seminar with one of their in-house experts. These companies all have an IT department that can learn, and local developers can attend it as well, get certified, and then apply for those job openings.

B2B Social Media Marketing Reaches Their Customers’ Customers

By helping their customer’s customer, B2B companies are able to directly impact their sales. An apparel wholesaler that sells to Wal-Mart, for example, might not need to engage Wal-Mart customers. But by monitoring a simple twitter search, they’re able to know if the end customer is dissatisfied with their products.

That customer will yell at Wal-Mart, who will then suspend orders from the wholesaler. By addressing the issue directly with the end-customer or by providing Wal-Mart with the tools to make that customer happy, the wholesaler guarantees their precious spot on the shelves.

How Can It Help Your Company?

Do you work for a company that is still floundering in social media? Simple solutions go a long way. Take 5minutes and run a relevant twitter search. Show the results to your boss along with suggestions.

It may not be worthy addressing a single customer’s issue if it’ll take 5 employees off their current assignments in order to do so. But if you find a pattern, or a chance to reach out to multiple users, that single action can then generate traffic to a retailer store, or improve the performance of a group of employees that use your software.

Let us know how you can better help your company in the comments below.

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On my last post I talked about how to extend the life of your social media links with SEO, and one of the tips I shared was to have an attractive and easy-to-use Social Sharing plugin. Today, we’ll go over my two favorite social sharing plugins for WordPress. As you know, we’re huge fans of WordPress for SEO because of the extensive plugin availability and its flexibility.

1. AddThis

AddThis is available free, for any website, not just WordPress. Their API allows social media integration with pretty much any community, and they have a list of 338 services (and growing).  If you’re a developer, it’s a paradise. For us WordPress users, they have their own WP plugin. You need to have an account with them to enable the full set of features for the plugin, but it’s super easy to customize the look and feel of the buttons, it’s placement on the page (above, below, or both), and which services you want to show your users.

Their coolest feature, however, is the free analytics dashboard they provide. It tracks every time somebody uses the plugin, in the form of “shares”, and then it tracks how many clicks that shared link received, so you know what was your site’s ‘VIRAL LIFT’.

To give you a better example, let’s say a user clicks the “tweet” button and another clicks the “like” button – you now have 2 shares. Once the link goes to Twitter, it receives 3 clicks. The Facebook link receives 5. You now have 8 clicks out of those 2 share actions. Finally, AddThis calculates your Viral Lift, giving you a percentage increase in traffic due to shares and clicks.

Reasons why we like it:

• Very helpful Analytics
• Weekly email reports!
• Extensive list of services
• Easy to use

Reasons why we dont use it all of the time:

• It conflicts with a few other plugins in WordPress – not every wordpress plugin is tightly-coded, and sometimes we see errors. Always check your site after implementing a new plugin.

So, AddThis is awesome. It’s my favorite Social Media plugin thus far. I recommend it to anybody, specially if you have a bit more experience with code.

2. Tweet, Like, Share and Plus One

Another plugin I’m proud to recommend is the Tweet, Like, Share, and Plus One.  Despite its name, they offer 5 main buttons -Twitter, FB Like, Google +1, Linkedin and FB Share. On their homepage, they state, rightfully so, that 99% of social sharing is done with these services, so why bother with the other 1%?

TLSP1 also has a great support page and a few other neat plugins – I’ve used the scrolling version of their plugin in one of our sites, and it works very well.

Reasons why we like TLSP1

• It does its job extremely well
• It allows great developmental flexibility
• It’s super fast to load
• Rarely there’s any conflict

Why dont we use it all of the time?

• It doesnt offer analytics

WordPress Social Media Plugins Roundup

Between AddThis and TLSP1, you have everything you could possibly want from a social sharing plugin. Give them both a try, and let us know how they fare in your Guerilla. Leave a comment here with your findings. And if you have a favorite plugin, we want to know about it. Is it better? Why?

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I’m currently in Brazil in a sort of vacation, trying to enjoy life without a smart phone (damn you, Verizon’s outdated CDMA network!!), and when I finally get to skim over my Google Reader, I was surprised to see a post by the great Pamela Vaughan talking about the Shelf Life of Social Media Links.

What On Earth does Social Media Shelf Life Mean?

Pamela based her article on Bit.ly’s original research on how long will people pay attention to links shared through different social media outlets. Shelf life, in this case, is how long a link is considered active after it’s original appearance. Bit.ly is perfectly suited for this, since they track every URL shortened using their amazing API for almost forever.

The research showed an average engagement time of about 3 hours for links shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Email. Links on Youtube had a longer shelf life, of about 7 hours. Here’s the breakdown:

• Mean half life of a link on Twitter – 2.8hrs
• Mean half life on Facebook – 3.2hrs
• Mean haf life of links shared thru IM, Email, or any other “direct” source – 3.4hrs
• For links on Youtube – mean half life of 7.4hrs

Here’s Bit.ly’s densityXtime graphic:

So… All My Hard Work Producing Content Evaporates After 3 hours?

Here’s an awesome answer: IT DEPENDS.

Bit.ly’s research calculated the Shelf Life of a link about a “baby otter being befriended by orphaned baby kittens“, which was about 70 minutes long. However, when they tracked the half-life of a link for “East Coast earthquake: 5.8 magnitude epicenter hits Virginia” its half life was only 5 minutes.

So, when you share stuff about kittens and baby otters, people seem to pay attention longer than when you share about natural disasters. Go figure.

But the real reason it depends is because even though Social Media can drive a gigantic amount of traffic (RTs, Shares, G+s, etc…), it’s certainly NOT your main source NEITHER will it determine the end of your content’s life.

How To Immortalize Your Content Using SEO

Let’s say you write about something a little less entertaining than baby otters and orphaned kittens, and a little more long-lasting than an earthquake. You may get a half life of about 30 minutes.

Let’s say in 30 minutes you receive about 100 visits. Engaging these visitors as quickly as possible can guarantee they’ll come back AND make sure THEY HELP YOU RANK. Here are some ideas:

• Spend Sometime on Your Headline to make it intriguing and exciting
• Have your main bullets, graphs, or images show up above the fold
• Have a newsletter signup box easily identified – preferably, above the fold
• Make use of Social Sharing buttons that require little work – G+, FB Like, and Tweet are my favorite. Digg & Reddit are good too, depending on your content.

Let’s say out of those 100 visits, you get 3 newsletter subscribers, 4 likes, 3 tweets, and 2 G+.

Your new subscribers will receive content straight in their inbox, and the social “clicking” will help push your half-life a bit longer. But, it will also boost your rankings.

Social Activity Strengthens Your SEO Rankings

I will write more in depth about this, but search engines are now seeing tweets, likes, and G+s (so weird to write this!) as personal recommendations. So, if somebody you follow tweets about a page related to your search, that page may show up higher in your results.

And as you know, as long as your site is up and your content is relevant, you’ll continue to receive traffic. Way longer than 3.2 hours.

So, the more social activity you get, the broader your content will reach. I promise I will write a more detailed post about this. Do you promise you’ll read it and then click on the social buttons? wink wink

Let me know if you think this research seems accurate to you. I feel sometimes that I see the same link being RTd over and over, for much longer than just 3 hours. Do you? Leave a comment

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Is there a guerillero(a) that DOESNT love #Twitter?

There isnt much of a social media guerilla without Twitter and its 200 million users. But even the most beloved (or former most beloved tool, I should say) has its issues, mainly, profitability. Quite the issue that is, being it so that Twitter just received $800 million during its latest round of funding – those investors want their money back.

Twitter Ads Are Coming

Not quite so obviously, Twitter took well over 2 years to finally announce their new Promoted Tweets platform, which will place ads from a few select companies and non-profits at the top of your stream. These promoted tweets will only appear if you follow one of those entities, and can be easily dismissed with a click. Very similar to the small adwords placements on Youtube.

Several publications rushed to proclaim the apocalypse – Can Ad-Littered Twitter Keep Its Cool? best sums what everybody is thinking: Will we, Twitter users, stick around as Promoted Tweets go mainstream? Their main point is the now-famous line from The Social Network:

“You don’t want to ruin [Facebook] with ads, because ads aren’t cool” –Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) to a young Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in The Social Network.

More realistically, Forrester Research marketing analyst Sean Corcoran reminded us that Promoted Tweets have been around for a while, but limited to twitter.com and search results within a few 3rd party twitter apps. Corcoran spoke with Adam Bain, president of Global Revenue at Twitter, and Bain guaranteed that “user experience is the No. 1 priority” … BLAH BLAH BLAH…

So How Can Twitter Generate Revenue (for Itself and for Your Business)?

Fellow Guerillero Mitch Joel was quick to raise the point that Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey have been debating all this time: Is Advertising The Future Of Twitter? Mitch raises a really good question – are we limited to advertisement to create revenue? Does Twitter really have only this most-obvious path to create revenue or is there some more creative, less intrusive method of making money?

One of the coolest ideas – at least the one with the coolest name – revolves around Deep Data Mining – accessing (or granting access to) endless amounts of user data to … target better ads? Anyway, the name of the idea sounds cool.

But quite honestly, ADS ARE A NECESSARY EVIL. Okay, as a marketer, I’m clearly biased, but the truth is users are very much aware that Twitter (or any service) cant be awesome AND free at the same time. See Pandora, Spotify, or any other “FREEMIUM” service out there. Did you ever hear anybody say “I’m quitting Facebook because it has ads” ?

Give Small Business a Tweet AdWords

Imagine you run a cupcake shop and you’re able to show an ad to users 20 miles around your store that used the keywords “birthday” or “party” or even “cupcake” within their tweets? Your ad is shown in that user’s stream moments after they tweet, from your own twitter account, and it’d look exactly like one of your regular tweets. Both highly targeted and extremely timely.

No “Stickyness” – no need to keep the ad floating on their timeline permanently. No annoyance, just a very well-timed display placement. Having an option to repeat such tweet every hour or so (as long as not more frequent than hourly) would guarantee a real impression.

If Facebook did make $1.86 Billion, as mentioned in Fast Company’s article, I bet at least 50% came from small businesses spending a few $1000s within their Facebook Ads. Small businesses are the driving force within Adwords, and it made Groupon a multi-billion dollar company. I love using Twitter for local Social Media campaigns, and having a tool like that would benefit a huge amount of businesses.

Am I totally wrong? How bad would Twitter (or any other social network) have to fill its stream with ads for you to stop using it? If that happens, do you plan on switching to Google+? Let us know in the comments.

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As a great content skimmer that I am after midnight (actually, all the time), I told him his guide was still too long. And then I gave him my 3-second guide:

Put family in the family circle. NEVER share you lolcatz or +Robert Scoble ‘s discussions with them. Put friends in the friends circle. Put co-workers in their own circle. Follow the same advice for every social circle you can think of, and then forget where you put JOE and share all of your content in PUBLIC mode

Isnt it just perfect?

Yeah, I’ve just posted about small businesses using Google+ , and of course, there’s a lot more to it than my 3-second guide shows. Clearly.

Jay’s guide is a great start to get your G+ Geek Mode on. Make sure you read it, comment on it, and then add him to your circles on G+.

Not on G+ yet? Leave me a comment below (use a real email!) and I will send you an invite. If you’re on G+, find me there.

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But should your business be on Google+?

The obvious answer is …. MAYBE. WTF? Yeah, I know it’s a ridiculous answer, but bear with me. There are 3 main things to consider before jumping on board:

Google Told Us Not To

Yeah – Googler Christian Oestlien, who’s directly related to the “revenue” part of Google+, posted on his profile asking business to wait because G+ is not yet ready for businesses. According to Christian, asking Ford for his (or her) gender was a bit awkward.  Despite the obvious awkwardness, however, Ford Motor Company has been added to more than 6000 circles and they’re clearly investing some time on the new platform.

Google+ Is Not An RSS Feed (Hear me, Mashable?)

Publications such as Mashable have ignored Google’s advice and created a business page of their own as well. If you check them out, you’ll see a long list of their blog posts on the page. Exactly like their Facebook Fan Page or their Twitter.

The entire proposition of Google+ is to “share just the right thing to just the right people” – that’s why they spent a lot of  money and brain power to create CIRCLES. Clearly, most people continue to publish posts in “public” mode, which beats the purpose, but for YOUR BRAND, there’s no “me too”. If you’re going to follow Chris Brogan’s advice and “be the first to market“, what exactly are you going to share and with who?

Which leads us to the 3rd point:

How Can Google+ ADD To Your Social Media Presence?

If you’re thinking of adding your brand to G+, consider its amazing new set of tools (hangouts, circles, sparks), and start brainstorming how they can help you ADD value to your campaigns, to your daily management, to your staff interaction.

Our guerilleros have just begun using Hangout for quick video conferences. It’s much faster than the buggy Skype tool for Facebook, and it also beats the Skype desktop client in a few home tests we ran. We are also using sparks to find great content, in almost real time, for several of our clients. There are MANY applications of Google’s newest set of tools that can positively impact your social guerilla. Dont just be another one. (Did you get the joke with +1/another one?)

I Conclude With Google’s Promise

Yeah, you have a profile on LinkedIn because you have to. The same applies to a few other social plaftforms. But Google has been very clear – aggressively clear – that they’re fully committed to G+. What this means is that whatever they have designed for businesses is likely to integrate every little product in their mix.

Google Places? Yeah, absolutely. Gmail, of course. Adwords? You betcha!

Here’s what I suggest – jump on Google+ IMMEDIATELY, but under your own name. Get used to circles, hangouts, explore the possibilities. Establish a few connections, follow a few power users in your industry.  When it comes time to have a real business profile on G+, you’ll have a giant leg up. That’s the real advantage here.

P.s – if you need an invitation, just leave a comment with your preferred email . You dont have to put the email in the message field – duh! The email field hides your email from anybody but me

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The reason why I’m actually writing this post is because of the way Tom Tom’s online team approached me, which is exactly how we outlined in on a previous post.

See “How To Turn Guerilla Marketing Viral – The Viral Effect”

Forget The Pitch, Look To Flatter

Quite obvious, when I get emails that say “hey, would you please write about our awesome campaign?”, I often ignore it. It’s not like we dont have enough social media marketing content to talk about, right?

But the Tom Tom people actually said “Hey, we read you blog, and really loved post ‘x’. We feel like your readers would appreciate this”. Ego-stroking works with me. Works with a lot of people online too

Alright, Their Campaign

Like a good viral campaign, the focus is not immediately clear – as you watch the video, you relate to John Cleese’s whining, you laugh with him, but you dont get to see any product placement.

Great job, Tom Tom!

You only recognize it’s a Tom Tom commercial once you see the link to their Facebook page – and even then, the call to action is not “buy from us”, but “watch more John Cleese videos”. They get it – people laughing on Youtube want to continue to laugh. They maintain that relationship totally money-free to engage users in a social environment. The sale may not come immediately, but establishing a connection with your users expands the reach of your social graph, which increases your customer base and motivates them to buy from Tom Tom instead of using their free Google Maps navigation. Oops…

Wait, Social Graph What?

You’re lucky I didnt say “Klout”

Social Graph is fancy for “all your Facebook fans, twitter followers, youtube subscribers, and foursquare friends put together”. Think about it – I may not buy a GPS from Tom Tom, but as I post the video on my FB profile or tweet about it, I’m increasing the odds a person in my social graph will.

And that’s the whole point – get people talking, sharing, and socializing – so they feel more comfortable opening their wallets, not just once, but as long-term customer.

We’ll talk about socially-driven brand loyalty some other day

Enjoy The Video

Ah, I almost forgot – the Tom Tom people were so nice that I’m even going to post the credits to this genious (!) campaign.

Credits

The videos and campaign are created by Pool Worldwide. (http://www.poolworldwide.com/). Dutch media agency MEC (http://www.mecglobal.nl/) is responsible for media tactics and planning. Content and Motion (http://www.contentandmotion.co.uk/) created the global social media and pr strategy.

No related posts.

A Fan page is the most flexible application for business on Facebook, it allows you to integrate it to your wordpress blog, to twitter, and even to Youtube.

But showing visitors your “wall” may not be the best practice for business, since you have to change that message constantly. Today, I’ll show you how to create a unique landing page for Facebook using FBML.

1. On Facebook, search for Static FBML

You’ll find the application page. Look over on the LEFT UPPER corner, right below the logo.

2. Click on “Add To My Page”

Add To My Page On Static FBML

3. Pick A Page

Pick A Page To Show Static FBML

That’s it – you’ve installed the application on your Fan Page. Now, let’s get it to work!

Make sure you’re logged in as the page admin. Visit your page and then click on Edit Page.

4. Find the Static FBML App

FBML application for facebok fan pages

5. Edit The Page

Warning – you’ll need some HTML knowledge to edit the page. Leave me a comment if you need some help with that.

Click on edit and you’ll see this:

FBML page Set Up

6. Add The FBML Page To Your Fan Page Tabs

Back on the “Edit Page” screen, find the FBML application and click on “Permissions”. The screen below will appear:

Add the FBML as a TAB

Make sure that both box and tab say ADDED, which means that there’s a navigation tab just for the new page you created within your regular Facebook Fan Page.

That’s it! Feel free to leave me any questions or suggestions on the comments.

Your guerilla is my guerilla!

P.S – Tomorrow I’ll show you how to make sure your visitors land on the new page you’ve created instead of the regular wall! Stay tuned.

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Guerilleros, if you’ve listened to interview I had with Marnie Swedberg about Social Media Marketing for Local Audiences, you’re probably already applying some of the tips I shared and creating more exposure (read web traffic) to your brand.

Now, what are you going to do with that?

The biggest point I wanted to make clear was the fact that Social Media is not about you OR your company – the focus is on your Customer, or better yet, on that person that you’ve just met that MAY or may not become your customer.

Since I’m sure you’ve already understood that, being the great guerilleros(as) that you are, you should also know that if you send your newly generated social media traffic to a corporate-looking website, you’re losing the boat.

Keeping The Traffic (And The Conversation) Alive

When people see your activity on Facebook or Twitter, or they become interested in your content on Digg, they’re engaging that conversation you created – whether by posting helpful information, or a cool video, or simply sharing exciting news, those visitors ended up on your site because you connected with them.

If you send them straight to a site with cookie-cutter copy that talks continuously about your company, you’re completely ignoring that conversation and forcing them to swallow the same old commercial pill we’re tired of seeing on TV and Radio.

Become A WordPress Fanatic

That’s where a blog comes in ultra handy – I’ve mentioned before that WordPress is to Social Guerilla what GPS is to a country driver in Manhattan, and that’s one of the reasons why.

Let me make it extra clear by painting you a picture:

You’ve paid somebody like me to create a cool video, post it on an optimized Youtube profile, and you’re getting good hits.

When they click on the link right next to the video and land on your site, they see a blog post talking about the video, along with 5 other related posts and even more videos.

At the end of each post, you add a compelling, but gentle, call to action: “Like these cooking tips? Sign up now and get a 40% discount at our next cooking class”

The difference is that once they came to the site, their experience with the video was extended by the blog posts, and then the call to action came in for an attractive ending (which begins the real sales funnel).

If you haven’t gotten a blog started yet – what’re you waiting for? What’s your biggest obstacle?

———–

If you’d like to know more about generating traffic through social media, there’s a new web marketing guerilla course coming up on March 18th that I highly recommend: Traffic Ultimatum

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pinpoint your social media marketing to your local audience

It’s with an immense pleasure that I invite all of you guerilleros and guerilleras to join me in a great run-through of Social Media Marketing strategies geared for local businesses.

I’ll be at a BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday afternoon with Marnie Swedberg and you’re in for a real treat.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday 02/25
Time: 4:00pm
Call-in #: (646) 727-2510
Address:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marniesfriends/2010/02/25/engage-your-local-audience-with-social-mediasm

As you’re very much aware, Social Media has no borders or boundaries, and despite its wonderful benefits, connecting with your neighbors online has always been somewhat of a challenge.

Mentor Marnie

Marnie Swedberg is a community leader, mom, brick & mortar and online entrepreneur that hosts a popular radio show on BlogTalkRadio. She’s the utmost definition of a successful Guerillera.

However, even a guerillera such as Marnie has her issues dealing with a local audience – she owns a restaurant and wants to reach her community via Social Media.

Based on that, here’s what you’ll be learning at the interview:

• How To Set Realistic Goals
• What Exactly Can You Blog About To Motivate Community Engagement
• The Difference Between Social Networking & Social Media Marketing (And why most business owners get it all wrong)
• The Most Suitable Platforms For Local Businesses (Hint: You’re probably already on it!)
• How To Integrate Blog, Facebook, Twitter To Minimize Your Efforts And Maximize Your Exposure
• A Tool That Lists Every Known Twitter account In Your Area
• And The Best (And Free) Way To Track Your Results

If I’m missing anything, let me know. Post a comment here with your question or shoot me a reply over @leosaraceni.

See you there!

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Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Duplicable???

Guerilleros, my sincere apologies for completely abandoning this community for almost 3 months. Hopefully you were able to survive without my guerilla tips

In fact, from the Feedburner notifications I’ve been receiving, traffic to the SMGuerilla was not badly damaged. So let’s address that right now.

Recycling Ideas Make Them Fresh?

No, of course not – just like Recyclables are still trash, despite their higher value. But a wise man once said that there are no original ideas, so I’m putting my recycled Guerilla strategy to the test.

I’m sure you heard about the impressive success that @DellOutlet generated: over $2 million in sales from Twitter alone.

Great, huh?

Here’s the challenge

Can the same be done for an Online Fashion Boutique?

I’ve created an @Outlet account for them and fired up all of the inventory they had put aside for “liquidation”.

The next step was to create a special coupon (in this case, tweet10) to serve two purposes:

1 – Tracking (of course, Analytics helps too)

2 – Exclusivity (only followers have access to these great deals).

Here’s where things go a little South:

The company prefers their sales staff focused on “more important things than Twitter”.

Can Twitter create revenue?

Is Twitter A New Sales Platform?

The real reason behind Dell’s success was that they had a real person tweeting, interacting, and actually performing extensive customer service work. They shifted the focus off Dell and started retweeting quotes, participating on #followfriday, and answering @replies.

But is it the real reason? Or was Dell simply the 1st big corporation to try such strategy and benefit off of novelty?

Here’s where my guerilla suspicions come from:

• None of the deals were actually that much cheaper or exclusive
• Dell.com/outlet existed prior to the twitter account

Our Strategy

While the sales staff is focused on more important stuff, and since they’ve paid me for all the work upfront, I decided to run without them.

• My software is updating their outlet account with offers every 10-15 min -
• All offers point straight to the final sales page with that specific item on display.
• We go in once or twice a day to check for @replies.

Here are the stats after 10 days of campaign:

• 114 Visits from Twitter.com
• 69 followers (as of 2/17 at 12:35am)

Considering their usual traffic source is PPC, 114 visits would cost $45.6 (at a cheap $.40 bid).

So even if the campaign turns out less than ideal, they’re at least looking at a cheaper traffic source.

What about you?

What do you think it’s going to happen to this automated Twitter sales process?

Leave your comments!!!

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