Video may have killed the radio star, but social media is bringing back the radio station. In today’s world of 24/7 connectivity, traditional forms of media have found they either need to adapt or they’ll become obsolete. While television and film industries have been slowly adapting to the new way of the world, radio has been a little slower to jump on the bandwagon.
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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. However, there are ways to take advantage of it (if you can get past the timeline thing…)
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Good morning, Guerilleros! Lately, we’ve taken up a new client, in the form of the local Quiznos. For those of you not familiar with Quiznos, they are similar to Subway, only better. Quiznos is a big enough name that making a site in addition to the corporate one seemed pointless, so we made a deal with them to provide local social media services. We also get 10 free subs a month!
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Good morning, Guerilleros! Summer is coming, and with summer comes summer blockbusters! Some of the biggest and best movies come out this time of year, and with a line up that includes Thor, Captain America and the Green Lantern, it’s going to be a great summer for comic book fans. But the movie I’m talking about today is Hesher. Read More…
Social media has helped change the way we use the internet and has brought whole new ways of marketing. Without social media, this site wouldn’t exist. However, all too often, people forget just how big the internet is. Once you tweet something or update your status, that’s it. It’s out there. You can delete it, but there’s no guarantee no one saw it first. This is a lesson that both Chrysler and Aflac recently learned within days of each other.
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Chrysler’s snafu was perpetrated by someone with access to the Chrysler Twitter feed. They apparently thought they were using their own account, but inadvertently used the Chrysler one when they complained about traffic in Detroit and dropped the f-bomb. Oops.
Aflac’s issue comes courtesy of Gilbert Gottfried, who somehow thought it would be a good idea to crack jokes about Japan’s recent crisis on his personal twitter account. (Really, Gilbert? Wow.) While the actor eventually took the offending comments off of his page, the damage was done and Aflac unceremoniously canned his ass.
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My grandmother used to say “Fools names and fools faces are often seen in public places.” How right you were, Gram. 
People forget that the internet isn’t a private place. Period. We’ve talked about privacy on Facebook before. It doesn’t exist there or on Twitter, Myspace or anywhere else online. In a world where everything is a quick Google search away, you need to consider the repercussions of everything you do online.
These are two different examples of social media snafus. With Chrysler, the employee was careless, and in the case of Aflac, their spokesman was an idiot. Yes, it was his personal profile, but that doesn’t matter. When you are a public figure, that’s the price you pay. So how can YOU avoid making a similar mistake?
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I’ve heard of people using separate Facebook accounts, or using FB for work and public and MySpace for personal, but that is still a great way to tempt fate. The Chrysler employee thought he was using one account when in reality it was the other. That could just as easily happen to you. You think your updating your personal profile and the next thing you know, clients and the public are asking you about your date Friday night. Not a good solution.
I don’t have easy access to any of my clients accounts on my phone specifically to avoid this situation. When I mobile social update, I never have to worry, because I know it’s my account, period. I’ve purposely made it so I have no access to client accounts on my phone because this very situation was immediately apparent and avoidable. The guy at Chrysler was an idiot for having such a huge client even near his personal account. Access it from a real computer. It can wait to be updated while you drive to and fro.
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If you won't say it here, then don't say it!
Ultimately though, my solution for this is the same as for Facebook privacy concerns. Stop putting things online that will embarrass you! If you wouldn’t say it out loud in front of your church, don’t put it online. That’s why we have phones and email, for sending more personal stuff. And if it’s real personal, tell them in person. I know my clients are going to be friends on Facebook, and that some of them will follow my twitter. I wouldn’t drop the f word in front of them, so I won’t online either. It’s not real hard.
Just THINK before you SPEAK.
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Social Media Guerilla brings tips and tricks for effective social media marketing, as well as social commentary to anyone who is interested or will at least listen. We are waging a war on traditional marketing techniques. We are the underground. We are the future. Enlist now.
Good Morning Guerilleros! I swear, spring has come early in my part of the world. This is another beautiful day is a week long string of beautiful days. But you didn’t come to hear me talk about the weather. Last week, Dr. Anna Gralton was kind enough to talk about using humor in a social media campaign. And she mentioned one of our clients, The Cornhole King – producer of custom cornhole boards. The King’s social media marketing strategy really relies on humor. And it’s been enjoyable, to say the least.
If you do a Google image search for Cornhole, I hope you have the SafeSearch on. And if you do, you’ll see plenty of pictures of the game cornhole, a popular party game. I’ve never played it, but the rules are easy enough. You have to throw three bags full of corn into a hole on a sloped board. Probably harder than it sounds.
There are numerous companies online selling cornhole supplies, and even numerous Cornhole Kings. As a matter of fact, just yesterday we had a polite little C&D letter. So now he’s the NEW Cornhole King, which was actually the name of our site all along, and we refer to him as The King.
The most immediate way we convey the humor is through the blog and Facebook. Anna has done a wonderful job building up a faux mythology behind both the King and the game. She has provided detailed descriptions on the Cornhole Court, the way Cornhole Evolved From Warfare, and other posts that are pretty funny. However, she also puts useful info into the posts, like the rules and etiquette; things of that nature. And every other week is a news update from the world of Cornhole. Real news, not fake. Cornhole is amazingly popular.
To go along with each post is an appropriate picture. Initially it was a photo-shopped picture of the King’s head on some real kings body. He had a terrible grin and sunglasses on. So now I do some simple editing to pictures of real nobility to give them sunglasses, and the King has an instant family tree.
Of course, all of our posts make it to the Facebook page, and our FB specialist posts humorous updates on the page daily, as well as frequent twitter updates. It’s proven pretty popular, and we’re pleased with the reception it’s had. Moving forward, we’re going to do a few videos with the full Cornhole Court in attendance, and see if we can’t get those going around.
Well, that’s it for today, Guerilleros! It’s too nice to stay in here all day. I’m going to the beach. See you next time!
Social Media Guerilla brings tips and tricks for effective social media marketing, as well as social commentary to anyone who is interested or will at least listen. We are waging a war on traditional marketing techniques. We are the underground. We are the future. Enlist now.
This week, I spent a lot of time setting up various methods of communicating with people. I probably spent at least 5 hours just making it easier for people to find me and talk to me online. And of course, I already had all the common utilities like Facebook and Twitter. And as I did this optimization, I started thinking about privacy concerns on Facebook and other sites, especially after Mark got hacked.
A lot of people have multiple concerns about privacy on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, calling for more stringent protection. They are consumed with the thought that people might be able to see them. While Facebook has several different levels of privacy settings, they’re not good enough for a lot of people.
I don’t get it. You’re online. It’s the internet. Were these people raised with no common sense? How can you expect privacy when you have no direct control over the medium? Much like celebrity sex tapes, once you put it down in a format that can be distributed easily, there is no realistic guarantee of privacy. It’s a shame, maybe, but it’s the truth.
So I propose a very simple solution. Don’t put anything private online. If you don’t want anyone else to know, then don’t say it or show it, especially not on service that is designed to share info, like Facebook.
My Facebook account is wide open to everyone. Anyone reading this can go to Facebook right now and see everything on my wall and all of my photo’s. Why? Because there is no info on there that I wouldn’t tell you anyway. So I don’t really care who see’s it, and anything I don’t want available to everyone, I share either in emails or in person. And I certainly wouldn’t put anything that might be embarrassing to me on there.
Of course, that’s just me. But I encourage you all to do the same. My grandmother, God rest her soul, always said “Fools names and fools faces are often seen in public places.” And my grandma didn’t raise no fools.
Social Media Guerilla brings tips and tricks for effective social media marketing, as well as social commentary to anyone who is interested, or will at least listen. We are waging a war on traditional marketing techniques. We are the underground. We are the future. Enlist now.
For privacy in a more personal setting, you should hold your next big event at The Grande Ritz Palm, the top Outer Banks wedding venue. The Palm is large enough for an extended family reunion and secure enough to let you feel safe. With just a short walk to the Albermarle Sound, the Grande Ritz Palm is the perfect event site for you.
Good morning, Guerilleros! It’s another fine day in paradise! Actually, it’s really cold outside. Winter has finally hit the island, and I am really glad I don’t work outdoors. Thankfully, those days are over. And today, I can turn up the heater, forget about the cold, and focus on social media, and writing for you, my fellow guerrillas.
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.
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.
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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