Curation Revolution

Hunting social media marketing ROI can make it easy to ignore the most important point - Your company, brand and product must have a social media marketing strategy.

Marty Note
The soial ROI controversy is in high gear thanks to a Forrester report (see my Don't Follow GoofyStupid and the Clueless post from yesterday: http://www.scoop.it/t/curation-revolution/p/3161431620/don-t-follow-goofystupid-or-truly-clueless-on-social-media-roi-marty-note ). I thought it would be a good idea to go over some social media marketing basics. 

First, I am NOT a mystic or philosopher. I was trained in e-commerce by direct marketers. I believe in Internet marketing's ROI. Increasingly I understand that ROI is tied to who we are, what we project and how well our talk matches our walk.

Caveat stated, here are some thoughts on what Social Media Marketing IS:

* Aspirational - speaks to who we ARE and Want To Be.
* Connection - speaks to our desire to learn from each other.
* Exploration - speaks to the inner explorer in all of us. 
* Saves World - creates community and action. 
* Elicits Joy - helps share discoveries, joy, victories and defeats. 

If these attributes sound like Jim Stengel's fundamental human characteristics brands need to align to it is on purpose (read GROW by Stengel). In the post Social Media Marketing The Most Valuable ROI I asked if you could afford NOT to create a social presence. I don't think avoiding things is as powerful as wanting something. Let's recast the question and ask if it is important your brand connect, explore, impact, have aspirations and share joy? 

Yes right? 

Social Media The Most Valuable ROI
http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/social-media-marketing-the-most-valuable-roi/

Gamification White Paper from Atlantic BT with tips on how to use games and gamification to achieve Internet marketing objectives.

Marty Note
Can you gamify anything? Yes and that is why we wrote this paper about how to increase loyalty with gamification. This HOW TO and no charge or obligation white paper helps readers imagine how to gamify their websites because games are the stickiest content on earth and who doesn't like to "win"?

Enjoy and if you have great examples of gamification in marketing please share.

Exclusive Content for Curation Revolution (http://www.scoop.it/t/curation-revolution ) on Scoop.it:

Marty Note

I've been on vacation this week. When on vacation your mind starts to cycle differently. Today my mind was thinking about things I know are secret weapons, things that are sitting there waiting for someone to understand well enough to use for good purpose (hopefully). Here is my list of 5 weapons in waiting: 

1. The Keyword Tag

When we move to a semantic web the lowly tag will be our guide. We will learn to tag things fast with clear hierarchy and connection across a galaxy of content. Those who can tag will be able to curate and create an order of magnitude more content so the skill will go Darwin and become an epidemic.

2. The #Hashtag

If keyword tags are powerful the #Hashtag has super powers. Since #hashtags are attached to one of the best real time search engines, Twitter, the hashtags largely under utilized POWER is begging to have a hybrid brain, enough left brain to understand mixed with enough right brain creative to know what to do, to pick the #hashtag up and make it sing a special song.

3. Paper.li (http://paper.li/)

Perhaps the best of the "do more with less" tools (http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/internet-marketing-5-magical-do-more-with-less-curation-tools/ ) Paper.li combines the power of the tag and #hashtag with magic, with the ability to create a beautiful auto-magazine with minimal curation and oversight. The opportunities for feedback and interaction are so expanded by @SmallRivers tool that the first group to really know how to plug and play Paper.lis across their segments and keywords will be dangerous.

4. The Mobile App

Google reported lower than expected earnings this week (http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-revolution-leaderboard/p/2980796143/why-google-missed-earnings-today-in-a-single-word-mobile) showing a loose brick in the dam. For the first time ever the number, in absolute terms, of searches DECREASED.

This is HUGE as it is the realization of the Mobile First movement (http://www.scoop.it/t/mobile-revolution/p/1277764146/a-book-apart-mobile-first ). Mobile represents a viable shadow government and it is creating havoc for the digital mafia (Facebook, Google, Amazon). No one knows what is next, but it is going to be DIFFERENT and MOBILE.

5. Scoop.it (http://Scoop.it )

The brilliance of the Scoop.it strategy is coming into view. Scoop.it knows we need a hub to clean up our social mess. Scoop.it is waging an intelligent campaign to become the way we organize every other social tool, content and site.

The people who made the real money in the gold rush in the 1800s? Not the miners. If you dollar cost averaged all of their "killings" across all the chasers the miners made little. The people who helped the miners get organized, file claims and provided the pitchforks made the real money. Scoop.it's strategy to sell digital pitchforks is brilliant, intelligent and I like using their pitchfork more and more (something that can't be said for most pitchforks that tend to create the opposite reaction). 

Now back on vacation for one last weekend :). 

Related Reading: 5 Magical Do More With Less Curation Tools http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/internet-marketing-5-magical-do-more-with-less-curation-tools/  

I don’t feel courageous today, so it is a good day to write about courage. Ask yourself a question about your company. Which of the 5 types of Internet marketing courage do you have most? Where are you weakest? Best advice, work from strong to weak.

Take Our What Type of Internet Marketing Courage Do You Have Most Poll: http://poll.fm/3yq0j

Marty Note
Visiting the Children's Cancer Clinic at UNC yesterday was inspirational. Children are children and joy is joy. Inspired me to finished a post I've been meaning to complete about how to be a GREAT Internet marketer by having the 5 Types of Internet Marketing Courage:

* Courage For Self Examination
* Courage To Play Like A Child

* Courage To FAIL

* Courage To ACT
* Courarge to LOVE

If you pressed me to pick one, if you said what one of these five types of courage could make you a GREAT Internet marketer all by itself it would be the last one. Love is not a word you hear much in business communication and that is a shame. Life is short and LOVE is what makes it all makes some sense (lol). 

I hope you love this piece and have the courage to share your examples of Internet marketing courage :). If not, all good, you will have the courage tomorrow.   

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Hunting social media marketing ROI can make it easy to ignore the most important point - you company, brand and product must have a social media marketing strategy.

*** My article for Atlantic Business Technolgies (where I am Director Marketing) about Social Media Marketing's undeniable importance. Here is my favorite line:

Customers will forgive, guide and understand failure. Soon no existing or potential customer will forgive social absence.