A Changing Perspective

And really, why would they? The radio has always been the Twitter to television’s blog. You’d listen to the radio, and little bits of news or current events would be fed to you between songs. It was constant and you got spoon fed important bits as you listened.

However, in today’s onlinecentric world, we can get everything the radio offers with none of the interruption of commercials. Pandora, Last.fm, and other digital music services offer custom radio stations based on your interests. And if you want the news, flip over to Twitter, and you can see what’s happening without even interrupting your listening.

So how does the traditional radio station keep you interested? By creating an engaging social media campaign. NPR has recently brought on Gary Knell, who was responsible for turning Sesame Street from a simple children’s show into an online powerhouse of interactive fun. NPR is hoping he can do the same for them.

Robert Siegel's been looking a little green..

However, NPR is not the best example. They already deliver something unique as a nationally syndicated talk radio station. They have numerous interviews and guest speakers that you won’t find elsewhere. While a strong social media campaign will bring them new listeners, they weren’t looking at closing their doors anytime soon.

No, the people who NEED the strong social strategy are the traditional radio shows. Sure, most of them have a morning talk show and personable DJs, but their content is still primarily focused on delivering music. Music I can get from Pandora.

Even in the car, you can plug your smartphone into the radio and listen to Pandora as long as you get 3G, which is pretty much everywhere at this point. If I’m taking a long road trip, why would I struggle to keep finding stations I like when my phone delivers the same station everywhere I go?

Tune In

So how can social media keep listeners tuned in? It’s all about content and interaction. You need to deliver the content people want and interact with your fan base. Nearly every radio station is online already, but that’s not really enough. Radio needs to have a campaign strategy that encourages listeners to actually listen.

• Encourage DJs and talk show hosts to interact via Twitter and Facebook live. This encourages people to interact and gives you some great feedback.
• Run contests both online and off. Most radio stations are constantly giving stuff away on air. Make sure you fill your online fans in, but require them to listen in order to win. Name that song type of contests are great for that.
• Pull the videos for songs you’re playing off YouTube and put it up on Twitter or Facebook.  Better, pull fan made videos and post them. YouTube is full of homemade videos for nearly any song. Video is a strong sell online.
• Encourage listeners to go interact with the social media campaign. I this day and age, people can listen to your radio station from anywhere they have a computer. If you live in a tourist industry based area, connect with listeners who will be listening to you when they come within radio distance. Expand your audience by expanding your area of influence.

But What About the Future?

Those are just a few ways social media can help a radio station. But realistically, even with these measures, it may just be delaying the death of radio. With digital content becoming more and more easy to access from anywhere, fewer people are looking at traditional methods of content distribution. The only sound coming from print is a death rattle, and Hulu, Netflix and Amazon On Demand prove that the TV can already see the end drawing nigh.

How much longer can it be until music radio has its final broadcast?

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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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Hesher

Hesher stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, G.I. Joe), Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta, Black Swan) and will be released in theaters in May. The plot is about a man who lost his wife and his son who are both suffering from the loss until Hesher shows up and changes their lives.

While it may sound like a heart wrencher, it’s not. Hesher is a foul mouthed pot head who lives by rules that aren’t entirely normal. The soundtrack is half Metallica, and even the title font is done to look like the Metallica logo.

Defacing Photos

We’ve been working very closely with director Spencer Susser on the social media campaign, and it has revolved around taking normal pictures and videos and “Hesher-izing” them. Popular videos from Youtube and pictures of famous people have all been tagged.

Originally, fans could post their pictures to the Hesher personal profile and the director would tag them all. Now, however, the official Hesher Facebook fan page has an app to let you deface your own pictures with some Hesher graffiti. The app is the Hesher De-Facebook, and I’ve included an example with my cat, Demon.

Demon Before

Demon Defaced

Naturally, we’ve also started a Hesher Twitter campaign, and we’re very active on both the personal and fan pages on Facebook. It’s generated an overwhelmingly positive response, and we’re eagerly awaiting the release of the movie. It’s been a lot of fun working with everyone involved. Rainn Wilson and Metallica, as well as others, have made mention of the movie to their fans, and we get a large amount of traffic from related sites. So when Hesher releases in May, make sure you go see it and help support our marketing campaign!

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The Stupid

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.

Welcome to the Fishbowl

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?

Separate Accounts? Just Fooling Yourself

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.

Another Simple Solution

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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Cornhole Competition

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.

Cornhole Comedy

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.

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Twitter stays at the front of user privacy protection

Hello Guerilleros! Recently, the Guerilla Chefe received an email from Twitter discussing two big changes they are implementing. These improvements will be unfolded over the next couple of months. More than likely, a few of you also received the same email, but perhaps, you were a bit confused. Well, lets clear that up.

Update #1- The Rise of OAuth!

The first update is for new authorization rules for applications. This change will begin implementing OAuth, an open standard that will not require you to hand out your password to programs anymore.

Much like a valet key, OAuth gives applications very limited access to your account, so unauthorized users can’t hijack your feed. And you can control exactly how much access this key permits.

And, applications are no longer allowed to store your password. That’s great. You no longer have to worry about someone stealing your phone and gaining access to your password. And lets face it, the majority of people use the same password for almost everything, so keeping it safe is pretty important.

Update #2 – See Where You’re Going!

We comon folk will start experiencing the t.co URL wrapping. This is a n order to provide better content.great feature too. No longer will you need to fret over following a link in a Tweet. Before it even gets to you, it is screened to make sure it’s not affiliated with any sort of malware.

Plus, with the URL wrapping, you’ll actually be able to see where the link is taking you. No more clicking a link to go to amazon, and ending up at 4chan.

Also, Twitter plans to collect data on the sites we click through to, to enhance user experience. I think that is just market speak for “So we can more effectively target you with ads”.

In light of all the problems Facebook seems to have over privacy, it is nice to see a social media site trying to stay ahead of the curve. These updates, while not exactly super cool, are important, and will help protect you and your clients in the long run.

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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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Integrating Social Media Is An Advanced Guerilla Move..

So yesterday I posted about a social marketing manual for small businesses and I got a couple of questions in regards to the automatic updates from blog to Facebook and from Facebook to Twitter.

Well, here it goes:

Linking Your Blog To Facebook

If you click on the link above, you’ll watch a video tutorial I made a couple of months ago. Facebook changed A LOT since then, but the concept is the same.

1. Find Your Blog RSS Address

Usually, it will be something like YourBlog.com/RSS. Write it down.

Log into your Facebook account, and click on Notes.

Click on the Notes icon

Click on Import Settings (if you’re not importing any RSS, it may show Import Notes)

This tab will be on the upper right of your NOTES section

Then, all you have to do is enter your RSS address into this next form and click IMPORT

enter your RSS address and hit Import

Alright. Everytime a new RSS feed goes out (you write a new post), FB will display your post in full, as a new note.

Now, from FB to twitter, it’s even simpler (this is only for Fan pages):

Go to Facebook.com/Twitter

You should see a screen like this (with your Fan pages)

From there, you just have to follow the instructions. Put your twitter log in and password, and you’re good to go.

Remember – Facebook is weird – sometimes it will update Twitter, sometimes it wont. I havent spent enough time to figure it out, but I know it works.

Let me know how it goes for you. Also, I’m thinking $47 for the Social Guerilla Manual. What do you think?

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