Horror Movie Goodness

As you know, we’re no strangers to working on social media campaigns for movies. One of the most recent projects we’ve been working on is a new movie, The Theatre Bizarre. It’s an indie horror movie that the Chefe has dubbed “gore-porn” and that’s a pretty accurate description. We started their social media campaign pretty much from scratch, and really relied on Twitter to promote new stills and clips from the movies.

The Chefe used Follower Wonk to find influential people in the horror movie industry, and developed lists for outreach. We contacted them and worked in conjunction with their Twitter accounts to help spread the word around about TTB. In the weeks to come, we’ll be talking about Follower Wonk and it’s usefulness in other types of campaigns, not just movies.

More Movies, Plus Games

Another project we’ve been working on is a series of three sites, two based around movies and one on video games. When the Movie Gallery franchise went out of business, it sold its assets, including its web presence. The sites for Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery and Game Crazy were all bought buy the same company and it was our job to figure out how to turn a profit on them as well as market them.

The Chefe had the brilliant idea to turn them into collating sites. The Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery sites automatically post content the most popular posts from several major movie news sites, and the Game Crazy site does the same thing for video games. We also supplement the sites with unique, humorous content written by yours truly.

We’ve created Facebook, Twitter and Google+ business pages to reach out to new fans as well as connect with old fans of the sites. While the direction of the sites is entirely new, it still offers plenty of content that should appeal to older fans. We post unique content to each fan page as well as repost more popular posts from the sites.

More Posts Coming

With the increase of new and unique projects we’ve been doing, we have plenty of new content for Social Media Guerilla. So while we’ve been off the radar for a little while, we’ll be posting more frequently again so we can share our experiences with you. Sorry, we’ve not been around much, but as you’ll see, the wait has been worth it.

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Enter Irene

While it’s no surprise that we flooded (the average elevation around here is 2 feet above sea level), this storm was a pain. The Weather Channel was doing their typical job of panic mongering and predictions of doom and gloom, but by the time the storm hit us, it was only a Category One. We were less than worried.

In fact, the first half of the storm was kind of a joke. I went and visited friends in the middle of it. I have a string of Foursquare check-ins and comments to catalogue the complete disregard I had for the storm. That’s right, visiting friends in a hurricane.

Bad Waters

The water seems a little high...

But the back half of the storm eventually came in. I saw the water rising in the canal behind my house, and the water was quickly encroaching into mine and my neighbor’s yards. I posted this to my Facebook, and quickly received word that it was going up everywhere in Colington. Hmm, maybe that’s not good.

I went back into my house, I ate something, and sat down to watch TV. Yeah, we still had power even. As I was relaxing into my chair, a friend of mine called to check on me. I mentioned how the water in the canals had risen pretty quickly, and he said he’d never seen it rise so fast. I agreed; four to seven feet in an hour and a half was a pretty decent rate.

His response was what made me realize I had been far too relaxed with this storm. He said ”No, I just meant the three feet it went up in the past twenty minutes.

Three feet in twenty minutes? Uh-oh.

The Waters Roll In

I quickly donned my rain jacket and ducked outside. Indeed, the water had risen from the small area around the canal to around my house and up the street. My entire neighborhood was submerged in brackish sound water. I was stunned. Never had the waters risen this high in the nearly twenty years I’ve lived here.

Looking worse...

The worst part was, it wouldn’t stop. The water just kept rushing in. Many of the homes in my area are built well of the ground, but naturally, not mine. It has a crawlspace under it, so its about four feet off the ground. Which, while normally plenty, was rapidly becoming less likely to be enough.

My cousin had gone to sleep with the strict admonition to not wake him until “the water is around my ankles.” Once my brother came over, wading through waist deep water, I figured by the time he actually woke up, it’d be ankle-deep in the house. He was clearly a bit pissed I’d woken him, but when he looked outside and saw people kayaking through our front yard, he lauded me for my fine decision making skills. Things were getting pretty tense. We were inches from disaster. And the water just kept coming.

That's a mailbox.

Safety

Ultimately, it was our lack of height that saved us. The water stopped rising a scant six inches from the bottom of the house, and didn’t do any damage to our home. Internet went out, but that was it. Our cars were not so fortunate. They flooded up to the windows. Thankfully, I had full coverage, but it’ still a pain in the neck.

Bye Car! I'll miss you!

Ironically, the people whose homes were higher up suffered the worst. Years of possessions accumulated in basements all over Colington now fill the Dare County dumps.  Naturally, I had boxes of stuff in my mothers garage for “safekeeping”. No longer. But lot of people lost a lot of things that can never be replaced.

The Critical Role of Social Media

Now you might be thinking, “This is a tragic tale, sure, but what does it have to do with social media?” I’ll explain.

When that water was inches from the door, I was scared. If it had come into my cousins house, we would have been in a bad spot. I would have lost pretty much everything I own, instead of just almost everything I owned. Not to mention, where the hell would we live? And then after the fact, when I was surveying all the damage to my mom’s house and my neighborhood in general, it was devastating. I was already stricken with the flu, but that left me weak in another way.

Salvaging what I could

But I knew I wasn’t alone. I could stay connected through Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Before the storm was bad, we joked together. When it was bad, we were scared together. And after the storm, we commiserated  together.

Colington? Oh, like where I live?

She fails to mention that some of that stuff was mine...

Ok, maybe not crying together... Also, that was a Lovecraft reference, not South Park.

But through thick and thin, we were together through the storm. Which made a tense situation a lot easier.

And tomorrow is always another day.

No related posts.

And speaking of you, the reader, I have recently noticed an upswing in membership on the Networked blogs. That is a great app. The Chefe has almost all of our blogs on his wall with it.

We’ve been getting a steady stream of new readers coming on board, and I want to welcome them to the blog. I also want to thank whoever turned them on to us, because that is social media marketing at work. Especially on this blog, which is much like the shoemaker’s children, always going barefoot and without any marketing.

The Challenge

And in honor of all the new readers, today I have a challenge. It’s a simple one, so I hope you’re up for it. And it’s going to tie in to next weeks post, so I hope you do it.

Two of the main concepts behind Social Media Guerilla are stealth and networking. Have you read the About SM Guerilla page? It’s all of about five sentences, so do so if you haven’t yet.

The best social media marketing strategies should not even look like marketing campaigns. To quote the Guerilla Chefe, “Guerilleros are sneaky.”

The second part is networking. You need to have a network of friends in order for social marketing to work. Otherwise, who’d spread the news?

The Guerilla Chefe embodies these two principles. He has stealth so down pat, his name doesn’t even appear on this entire blog. And yet, you are all still part of his social network. Nice, huh?

So here is the challenge. I want all of you to find the Guerilla Chefe and friend him on Facebook. Make him part of YOUR network. This is just a simple way to flex your deductive reasoning  prowess, plus, it helps you become a little more stealthy tracking someone down.You probably won’t have to think real hard, but you’ll have to think a little. And if nothing else, haven’t you ever wondered who the Chefe is? Heck, he wasn’t even the Chefe until I started writing here.

And really, this is super easy. I gave you a clue on where to start already, and your choices are seriously limited. Really, the more I think about it, this is almost too easy.

Just make sure that when you friend him, you put the name of the movie I got the title of this post from in a message. And if you didn’t know what movie it was immediately upon reading it, then you must have completely missed the 80′s. Google it.

Next week I will explain why we’re doing this. That’s right, this does all have a purpose. But you’ll have to wait until next week to find out. So this challenge is only good until next Tuesday.

The Prize

Oh, and what’s the point of a challenge without a prize? I have no idea what to offer as a prize though, so here’s my proposition.

If you friend the Chefe, friend me, as well. And in return, I will write one blog post, masterfully crafted for your blog, free of charge. I will also put your name up here so everyone else knows how cool you are.

I would like to point out that I am a professional writer, and I do get paid well for what I do, so this does actually have some value.

I am a REALLY busy guy, though, so this is only eligible to the first five people who friend the Chefe AND me, so you have to friend us both to get it. Once you find the Chefe, finding me is as easy as saying “Oh look, there he is.”, so I don’t feel this makes the challenge any harder. Plus, for as long as it’s going to take me to write 2,000 words, I feel I deserve to be friended.

I will write it about any topic you like, up to 400 words minimum, and it will have my own distinctive flair. SEO and keyword usage is a given.

If you don’t have a blog, then I don’t know. I have trouble believing that anyone who cared about social media marketing could not have a blog. That’s like trying to fly by flapping your arms really fast.

Just don’t forget to put the name of the movie in a message when you friend the Chefe and when you friend me.

And that’s it Guerilleros. You have one week, so get a move on, and good luck. I hope you all have a merry Christmas, and I’ll be hearing from you soon. Don’t forget to tune in nect week, when I explain how this all ties into social media marketing, only on SMG.

For an example of my writing, check out some of the content at OBX Master Builders, the site for the best Outer Banks contractors.  The older blog posts are mine along with all of the page content.  If you like what you, take your spot at the table and try to win my services!

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Last season, one of the episodes had Jack, Liz (who I always think of as Liz Lemon, thanks Tracey) and Cerie all in Liz’s office. Jack is upset about a post on YouFace, a Facebook clone, and wants to check it. Both Cerie and Liz rush into action, Cerie on the smartphone, Liz on the desktop. Before Liz can even finish entering in the sites name, Cerie announces she has the relevant post. And this scene is clearly meant to be a joke on Liz.

But this innocuous little scene really hammers some facts home. It clearly demonstrate that Lemon’s generation of 30-40 year olds has  already been left behind in the IT field. Tech is advancing so fast, that people who were not brought up with this constant race are not adapting as quickly as younger people.

Of course, we all knew that. What’s more interesting though, is that Cerie went to her smartphone first. And this is the most common way to get on the web if you just need something quick. I’m on my laptop, and out of habit, I still used my phone to find out how to spell Cerie’s name properly. A vast majority of younger people get there main exposure to the internet through their phones. Google Mobile Search has drastically increased this year, no doubt in part because of the slew of new smartphones that really cater to the tween crowd.

But we knew this too. So what did I learn from that episode of 30 Rock? The fact that everyone already knows these things so well, that 30 Rock had a throwaway joke about it.

This is a quickly changing world Guerilleros. But you knew that.

But you can at least stay up to date on Social Media Marketing information with us. So sign up to get us everyday. Or at least as often as we post.

And now for something completely different.  The Williamsburg Wedding Guide is up and running with the goal of helping people plan their marriages in the Colonial Williamsburg area.  They have some great vendors and are going all out to be the best in the area.  If you are looking for a great place for your wedding, you should certainly check out the Guide.

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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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1. Local Social Guerilla – Results From The Beach! Guerilleros, the battle has been taking the best of me...

Local Social Guerilla On The Beach - Is That a Drink?

Guerilleros, the battle has been taking the best of me – not because I’m losing, but because I’m fighting too many

But I’ve got some interesting stats to show, and if you’re trying to conquer ground in your local market, light up your best cigar and join me for the kill.

I’m going to briefly analyze the highlights of two completely different companies that we have DOMINATED their local market (the same market, by the way) through smart, interactive, social media guerilla.

First, the market: we’re talking of a highly-scattered, hugely diverse population of about 20k residents in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (Northeastern NC). If you’ve been to any beach towns outside of NJ, you know the deal: middle-class locals, broke surfers, and the rich retired make for a tough crowd to target.

But…. what brings people together better than TV these days?

If you said accidents on the highway, you’re probably right too, but I’m talking about Facebook!

So let’s get to the nitty gritty:

The Outer Banks Gym

Community Interaction Fuels Viral Exposure

Their campaign actually started with PPC, and that brought the good-ol’ ppc lead: mickey mouses, john does, jane eres.. Probably because the gym was already established on the beach, the “hit-em-over-the-head” PPC approach did not work very well. The market had been introduced to the product and made up their mind about. (It did work very well for Turists, but let’s save that for later)

When PPC started to get annoying & expensive, I felt it was my duty as social guerillero to set them up with a blog – and since I was there quite often, I took pictures and footage of what was going on in the gym from time to time.

Do you see any work of genious here? Me neither.

What do you, smart guerillero, think happened? Well, a series of things:

Internally, the gym members were all excited to have a place where they could see each other (anybody said online community yet?), and they were even more excited to see our posts going to Facebook – where their friends and family could see how much weight they lost, blah blah..

Externally is where the fun began – It was great having the gym’s profile on Facebook feeding video and news all over the place, but it wasnt until one of their students, completely impartial to their marketing efforts, started posting his own videos of the training, the races, etc… that things really kicked off.

See what happened here? A happy member, posting about his good time at the gym, on his own Facebook profile, started a massive viral reaction!

Suddenly, a great part of their own community also started posting their stuff – and the mess was made.

Now, we’ve got people asking on Facebook about the gym’s rates and how they can sign up. And people in other cities asking about our programs, to see if they can find something similar in their places. It’s creating more buzz than PPC ever did. And all it’s taken is a bit of time to take pictures and videos! Check out the gym’s youtube channel:

Now, for the second case:

The Outer Banks Wedding Catering Service

Videos Are Incredibly Powerful For Marketing - Surprise Your Customers!

Again, we also started with PPC – which brought some results, but infimal, and highly volatile – and since they didnt have an actual sales staff to work on those leads, it was up to me to make sure the leads were extra hot so they could close them easy.

This company also owns one of the best restaurants on the beach, and they already had a decent group page on Facebook before my guerilla services were summoned.

The problem here was that all of their prospects came through word-of-mouth (very effective on this tiny market), so they had ZERO marketing material or experience. Again, there I was with the social guerillero’s killer tool: my camera.

We started shooting their really awesome caterings – this one wedding in corolla was a big hit, and most recently, the owner guided us through the entire footage of this wedding in nags head.

Again, nothing even close to being work of genious, but check this out: footages like this one are still a hot novelty in the industry (specially here in the beach), and we sent the entire restaurant community to go check it out.

They loved it: the company got amazing feedback, and the community received a new influx of members at a very impressive rate. But that wasnt all.

The videos were breaking the seal on that market, but the wedding industry here, specially in the summer, has been dominated by large hotels and event planners. This catering company did not want to compete against a Hilton or a Ramada, but they wanted their piece of that pie.

And where can you compete as equals, without a budget? Exactly – ONLINE!

When we started their Party Catering Blog, the idea was to put all of their knowledge and experience out there, offer great advice to brides and dominate the market through SEO.

At this point, webmaster tools tells me that NONE of the blog’s pages were indexed yet – but thanks to the Facebook exposure, a ton of local websites (realtors, convention centers, towns) have already published our posts on their blogs and our videos are all over the net with “yum” comments.

Can you say Screw Google? Frank Kern would love that!

So there you have it – two small companies, beating old time market leaders because of smart social media guerilla marketing.

I will post more details of our campaigns here as often as I can. If you’re really interested, leave a comment with your question and I’ll answer it really fast. (promise)

If you’re not excited by going into battle alone, I’m available for mercenary work – my guerilla skills are yours, for the right price. That include video editing and distribution, social accounts management, blog set ups, etc…

LEAVE A COMMENT!

PS. Check out the new site for the best Outer Banks wedding photographers. New Island Photography.  The site is just getting on its feet but already has some great content.  If you have any questions about anything on their site, feel free to give us a shout!

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It’s a matter of time until our Guerilla transforms telephones into antiques.

But for offline people whose Facebook account is the ultimate experience with social media, the idea of building a community online may be a bit too much to handle.

Recently, my offline Guerilla introduced me to an offline professional to whom the phone was a fundamental tool. He had learned of my services and invited me to talk about using the internet to generate leads so he could – guess – CALL THEM.

Of course, he’s built success around this strategy and now wants to join the online world (even if it is with a offline mentality), but as our conversation goes from attraction marketing to pay-per-click to blogs, he starts to grasp the softer, more maleable side of online marketing.

I introduced him to the idea of using his knowledge and expertise to attract people to him – the Social Media Guerilla strategy, right?

Okay, maybe I didn’t introduce that to him, but I showed him infinite ways he could make his knowledge available to others and how, given the right tools, it could not only go VIRAL, but receive feedback from thousands of people that he’d NEVER be able to reach over the phone.

As I went on about content syndication, and creating a real social network, he started to realize how his social guerilla efforts would eventually lead to him becoming a knowledge provider, and people seeking him for advice.

For a second there, I think I saw him look at the phone with a sad look

We settled on creating a blog, with the right tools to manage and keep a community active – autoresponder, feedburner, and active social networking profiles.

Now, he’s excited to take some time away from the phone to start producing high-quality content, and has already given me enough data to produce his first eBook.

We Could Plan For Social Media Marketing Domination, But…

He needed to understand that despite the amazing immediate benefits of taking an active role in social marketing (in his case, we’re going to blow his customers away by giving them all this content for free), building a community is a long term project.

Connie Bensen, author of the community strategist blog, writes about building a web 2.0 community – a community 2.0:

Community is a new channel for business. It offers new strategies for customer acquisition, customer satisfaction, retention, product development & the list goes on… but it takes a human touch!

Of course, as he churns out articles, reviews, and lots of data, his online market share expands. But in the long run, he’ll be solidifying his presence online and feeding a monstrous business engine, made of his own community.

I can’t wait until more offline people wake up and join the Guerilla!

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