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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Hey Guerilleros, it’s time for another post! Yay!! Sorry we haven’t posted anything in such a long time, but you know how it is when you get busy; all the side projects get put on hold. However, we’ve been working on some fantastic new projects that will certainly be responsible for some fantastic future articles.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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:
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.
Here are the stats after 10 days of campaign:
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 do you think it’s going to happen to this automated Twitter sales process?
Leave your comments!!!
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:
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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