Posts Tagged Social Media Marketing
What To Do With Your Social Media Traffic?
Posted by guerilla in traffic generation on February 27th, 2010
Why Is Social Media Traffic So Confusing?
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
Is The Dell Outlet Twitter Campaign Success Duplicable?
Posted by guerilla in Social Media Marketing, twitter marketing on February 17th, 2010
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?
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!!!
What’s your excuse for running a free blogger blogspot blog?
Posted by guerilla in Blog Traffic on December 2nd, 2009
Use your social media brain and get a real wordpress blog
On our last post I showed you how easy it is to transfer all of your blogger content to a brand new wordpress blog. It showed how wordpress can host all of your content with a few quick clicks.
I also pointed you in the direction of a full tutorial that shows how to get a reliable wordpress blog hosting.
So what is your excuse for having a free blog?
If you’re a social media guerillero looking to dominate whatever battle you’re fighting, what’s stopping you from having a decent, professional blog hosted at your own domain?
I’d love to hear your answers.
What could possibly make you use a weird address like yourblog.blogspot.com instead of a simple yourblog.com?
The Image/Brand Effect
I may be offending some people with this comment – but do you know what comes to my mind everytime somebody tells me their blog address and it’s a blogger blog?
NEWBIE.
And the fact is – I’m right.
And even if I’m wrong, and they’re not newbies, they’re just too lazy to transfer their stuff to a new domain?
Somehow this doesnt compute in my brain.
The SEO aspect
I honestly cant say that having your own domain is better for seo – but I do know that one of the main reasons people just dont transfer their blogger over to a real wordpress domain is that they’re afraid of losing their rankings.
The thing is – the plugins that wordpress offers can make your life a heck of a lot easier when it comes to SEO.
Plus, there are channels you can use to get BLOGSPOT to place a redirect over to your new domain. That should clear most search engine issues.
So, please tell me - why would ever have a free hosted blog?
Sign up for Hostgator now – and then follow this tutorial to install Wordpress on your domain
Talk to you soon!
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The Synnd software is growing HUGE – Get in now while you can!
Posted by guerilla in synnd software on November 20th, 2009
The Synnd software is reaching well over 600 members on the community
Guerilleros, I will make this quick and painless…
1. Sorry about the lack of content lately.
I’ve been swamped and having a hard time to sit down, look at data and write cool posts like the one about social media silos or social community building.
But I am working on it. That’s why I’ve been posting about Jeff Johnson’s free stuff – I figured I’d at least point you in the direction of a high-quality content provider.
2. My favorite social media marketing software is growing!
The Synnd software has now well over 600 members, which is huge for our syndication campaigns.
Think about: 600 people that get 20 credits a day free = 12000 credits going out daily (each credit means one bookmark, digg or Retweet). It’s a tremendous force to be reckoned with, specially when it can reach the first page of Digg for pretty much any category.
Yes – with 20 votes within 24 hours, your content can easily be featured on Digg or Reddit’s upcoming page – TONS of people hang out there. It’s huge traffic, free, coming straight to your site and taking action on your content!
I tould I’d make this quick, so here it goes:
Sign up for Synnd now, enjoy the free trial, and I will help you with anything during your setup. Personally!
CLICK HERE
An Idea: Social Media Guerilla For Small Brick & Mortar Business
Posted by guerilla in Social Media Marketing on October 31st, 2009
Most small business owners are scared of Social Media
Guerilleros, here’s an idea: a Social Media Guerilla manual for small businesses.
You guys impressed me so much with your ideas for the social marketing campaign for an online store that I want to open this up for discussion.
My company has been running Social Media Marketing for a handful of local businesses – I’ve posted some of their results here already.
But a lot of smart business owners are scared of social media – they either think it will clog their schedule with Facebook & twitter or they just dont want to let of their control over the brand. (which is BS and we all know it)
I thought about putting together a manual that gives them a clear action path for social updates – something like this:
Events such as a big landscaping project, a nice wedding catering, or a funny mma fight a become a full blog post – write a quick blurb about the event (Who, What, Where, When, Why) and attach the most relevant pictures with the people’s names on them (so their names are indexed and they can find it)
After each blog post, you update Facebook (your profile, the fan page…) about the new blog post you wrote, and let the Fan page update your twitter automatically.
In between events (I’m assuming they wont post something new everyday) you can upload one pic every now and then to Facebook with a teaser to their blog.
What do you think, Guerilla brothers?
Let me know – leave a comment!
What Is Content Syndication & Why Should You Care?
Posted by guerilla in content syndication on October 29th, 2009
Content Syndication = Your Own NON-PAID Army of Marketers
You write a blog post.
You tell somebody on twitter about it.
That person comes in, likes what you wrote, and click on the “add to digg” button.
When that person posts your article on Digg, their app automatically updates that person’s twitter saying that she’d just digged your blog.
That person’s twitter followers come to Digg and see your post. They read it through the Digg toolbar, and automatically “digg it”.
Now that more people have “Digged it”, your post is up on the Popular section of Digg – and you reach tons of other Digg users, who repeat the process.
This is called Content Syndication and it basically means Viral Marketing through Social Media.
Expanding The Syndication Of Your Content
In the example above, all you’ve done was update your twitter about the new post. Let’s say that brought 10 visitors to your blog.
What if you had updated Digg, Reddit, Jumptags, Social Median, Simply, Delicious, Folkd, Facebook, and Twitter?
Now, you may argue that you might not have as many friends on Delicious as you have on Twitter. That’s a good argument, one that leads to the understanding of what Content Syndication really is based upon: SOCIAL CONNECTIONS.
Here are tools that will help boosting your Content Syndication:
The Add To Any Wordpress Plugin
You can see it at the bottom of this post – it even goes along the RSS feed. When you click on any option, the Permalink, Title, Description, and upper image are automatically inserted to the submit form of the service, reducing your time considerably.
You can get your add to any here
Ping.Fm
An impressive application that updates nearly ALL social services with the touch of a button – Ping.fm requires that you initially add each of your social networks to their list. They will then store your info and everytime you send a new update, it will refresh your status throughout as many social networks as you’d like.
Sign up for a Ping.fm account here
But You’re Still Alone…
Even with these great services, your submissions may very well never be clicked by anybody if you dont have an active social community of your own.
Luckily, there is a way to fix that: The Synnd Software
Synnd is a private community that exists solely to vote/bookmark/spread other users’ content, therefore guaranteeing a successful syndication (one that creates a viral marketing effect).
See the Synnd software in action here.
Exploring the benefits of social media and content syndication is a way to work around getting free traffic without having to know SEO and definitely not spending money with PPC.
If you’d like to know more about Synnd, leave your questions below.
If you dont want to know anything about it, leave your comments below.
If you hated my disorganized writing, leave your comments below.
See you soon.
PPC is trying to catch up to Social Media – How Relevant Is Your Guerilla?
Posted by guerilla in Social Media Marketing on October 21st, 2009
Is your content ready for the new PPC era?
So a couple of days ago I asked for your advice to help me come up with a social marketing plan for my new client, CuteToddlerCostumes.com.
I got some great responses, but the two that stood out the most were from Alex, who said
You could try to set up a Twitter stream with daily cool articles about kids stuff and start to follow relevant parents. How about that?
And from Adori, who said
What about getting parents to upload photos of their cuties in the costumes along with a brief write up of how much fun the day was and how the costume was a trill etc. Parents love to splash photos of their kids around.
Thank you, guys! Your ideas are by far the best route I have so far – and yes, Adori, parents fo love to splash their kids’ pics around. I’ll work with their design team to get that promotion off the ground.
But while I was researching on this topic, I came up with a surprisingly good guerilla advice from a mainstream Google sales guy, at the Inside Adwords blog:
Basically, what Jim Lecinsky is saying is what we all knew: you cant beat your customer over the head with your ad and expect them to drop what they’re doing and run to your site. He says PPC ads should now focus on adding value rather than disrupt their search/navigation.
And I’m back here thinking… isnt that what we call a BLOG? Duh !
So now, PPC is trying to catch up to Social Media and we have to fine-tune our stuff. Or not?
The people at Cute Toddlers have been running a series of content network campaigns, and their results are terribly common – average on-site time: 10seconds / bounce rate: 60%. They dont offer any value, they simply send people to what they’re looking for: costumes!
But, following Adori’s idea, if I had a campaign going where parents would post their Halloween pictures and maybe win free costumes, I could very well run that through PPC and… would my results be any better?
What do you think? Have you re-considered your PPC campaigns? Will my/Adori’s idea work?
Stay tuned… I will post it all here!
Social Media Marketing for an Online Store?
Posted by guerilla in Guerilla Marketing on October 19th, 2009
Social Media Halloween? Scary!
Guerilleros, today I ask for advice – my social guerilla skills have been put to test and I’m falling short at this moment.
I’ve been given the opportunity to manage the social marketing for an online costume store for toddlers called – tcharan… – cutetoddlercostumes.com. Their stuff is really cool (a bit pricey, but so am I…)
They’re brand new online, and according to their analytics, they’ve been receiving a decent amount of organic traffic for keywords such as kids harry potter halloween costumes and cinderella halloween costumes.
They need, however, to increase their brand exposure and want to interact with their customers through Social Media. (Dont we all?)
Their blog is well advertised within the site (on the upper right corner), but receives very little traffic. Apparently, their posts have been indexed, some are even on Digg and Reddit, but far from achieving the social viral effect.
Here’s my issue – social marketing for “real” businesses has the advantage that I can go in and get footage of their service/products, which makes content much more viral-friendly. For an online store, however, I’m coming up blank when I try to create an identity that doesnt consist of “buy our costumes”.
I’ve looked at Zappos and to a certain extent, Amazon, but their approach to Social Media is nothing like what these guys want to do: Zappos has their CEO on twitter, and on a personal blog, which adds a persona, a “face” to the brand. He barely speaks of the company’s products on his blog.
What CuteToddlers has been doing is basically discussing and advertising their costumes on the blog – yes, they add lots of personal touches to the posts, but they’re still salesy. Maybe that’s what I should work towards – getting a social media fan within the company and working with her/him to create a company “persona”.
What do you think?
Leave your comments – they are always DOFOLLOW and approved very quickly.
Is Your Company Stuck With A Social Media Silo?
Posted by guerilla in Social Media Marketing on July 28th, 2009
If your social media marketing is a silo, you're doomed to implode.
When I read this post over at Label:Indescript about social media silos, I immediately connected the subject to at least 4 business owners I’ve been in contact with.
Justin Boone, the author (and a darn good guerillero), talks about how companies start their social media strategies with a department (read blogger guy) that becomes completely alienated from the rest of the staff and from other departments.
I’d say that’s a better start than having NO SOCIAL MEDIA WHATSOEVER, but there are points to be taken from this when it comes to a powerful social guerilla.
The majority of businesses that decide to implement a blog or create dedicated social network accounts do so with only one objective: create more revenue.
Now that my guerilla is expanding into the fascinating world of “real” business (read offline companies), I’ve found that all these companies really know about social media marketing is that it’s “cheap” and can go “viral”.
Why They End Up With A Social Media Silo
The real benefits of creating an active community start when there’s a commitment throughout the entire company to share, engage, and participate in a public dialog. A good guerilla is never won by one lonely guerillero, but by a tactiful team.
And I’ve experienced lots of lost battles when:
- Companies fail to communicate with the social media deparment
The poor “blogger guy” is left hunting for material to post, and is left out with the task of tracking customer feedback and analysing google and twitter alerts.
Or, what is worse:
- All of the social media material comes from the marketing department (the billboard approach)
That happens more often than necessary, but it seems to be that corporate mentality impregnated on offline people; old ads, product releases, listing of properties… The entire community is now a giant billboard!
Stimulate The Social Spirit
Turn projects in development over to the SM department, let them post updates. Collect feedback, and apply their comments into the design.
Integrate multiple areas of your company by asking them to report daily activities to the SM team. Motivate the staff to post their comments on the company blog and to interact with each other within the corporate Facebook page.
And one more thing:
QUIT THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT CRAP!
There are tons of ways to measure social media buzz, to ignite content syndication, and those are valid strategies to evaluate strategies. Hiring a web analytics expert is also a good idea.
But enough with the constant cry about time and effort wasted: if these companies havent noticed yet, online content doesnt “die”, and even though it may not be immediate, a solid online participation will pay huge dividends as online usage wont stop growing anytime soon.
Okay, Social Media & Guerilla Marketing? Yeah, Here’s How!
Posted by guerilla in Guerilla Marketing, Social Media Marketing on June 8th, 2009
The Social Media Guerilla Logo
First of all, a quick explanation on Guerilla Marketing, from the one-and-only wikipedia:
“Guerilla Marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget.”
How about a budget of $ 0.00, and results like this, or this ?
What if I were to tell you that Social Media Guerilla elected President Obama?
The possibilities are endless, and the results are extremely tempting.
So, what does it take?
Social Guerilla Marketing Starts With Syndication
Who turns any Guerilla content Viral? You. Me. Users!
And how does any content spread on the internet?
It starts with ignition:
- submission to social bookmarking services
- submission to news/media rating services (Digg, Social Median)
- a tweet
Which is all very simple; the kick comes when nobody rates, or bookmarks, or retweets your content.
For the viral effect, a key factor in the formula is Syndication.
Content Syndication is how your Guerilla content gets to the first page of Digg, which leads to several retweets, which all together creates copious amounts of traffic.
And as we know, traffic is good for two things:
- MONEY – either selling stuff or selling space on your website to promote stuff, traffic is a major asset (when steady)
- INCOMING LINKS – the more attractive (Viral) your content gets, more and more website owners will link to it in an attempt to enjoy some of the buzz you created. Search engines feast on incoming links, and your other content gets a nice bump on SERPs because of all that love you spread.
Okay, everybody knows that…
But how to get people to syndicate your content?
To answer a question with another:
How many friends do you have?
Just like word-of-mouth, the initiator usually tells a close friend, who tells another, and the entire chain is set.
Online, it’s all a matter of having the right friends – the more, the better.
Friends are created on social networking sites like Facebook, or MySpace (if you’re under 14). Those are great to meet and interact with people, but they are useless for marketing.
Good syndication-friends are created at services where user-voting determines the visibility and the quality of the content. We’re talking about Digg, Del.i.cious, Social Median, Reddit, etc…
The trick is not just to ‘add a friend’ but to lead attract that person to reciprocate, gaining a ‘mutual friend’ status.
This means (depending on the quality of your content) that your friend is more likely to vote positively for a content submitted by you.
So, forget about Facebook?
Why not?
From now on, your focus as an Underground Social Guerilla (USG) is to:
- Create high-quality content
- Create a powerful content syndication network
With the first task, there’s not much anybody can do except recommend good readings.
But for the latter, you can kick-start your syndication here
The Social Guerilla…
Ready For The Revolution?
Facebook Guerilla!
Guerilleros are saying…