Social Marketing Revolution

Weekly Cool Tools from The Tool Guy
If you've never followed or read Robin Good's tool reviews they are works of art. Robin is the best "tool guy" on the planet. Robin has started sending out a weekly Tools of the Week email. Here are his selections for this week:

5) Cloud Storage Cost Comparisons
https://cloudvertical.com/

Foll @Robin Goodand subscribe to his Tech Tool Roundup (couldn't find the link to encourage subscription, so Robin if you read this ping the link to subscribe and will include).

Sign up for Robin's Newsletter Here:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/61/518534561.htm

When the Clash was labeled "The Only Band That Matters," it may have been record company hype, but when I was a teenager, there was probably no band that...

Marty Note
One of my favorite documentary films is the bio-pic about the Clash's Joe Strummer. "That's how we learned to play by doing it for ourselves a punk ethos. You got to be able to go out there and do it for yourself because no one is going to give it to you. Soon became a real big mashup," says Joe strummer.

Sounds like crowdfunding and Internet marketing to us :). M

Ten Benefits of Social Media Marketing

1. Increased Brand Recognition.

2. Improved brand loyalty.

3. More Opportunities to Convert.

4. Higher conversion rates.

5. Higher Brand Authority.

6. Increased Inbound Traffic.

7. Decreased Marketing Costs

8. Better Search Engine Rankings

9. Richer Customer Experiences.

10. Improved Customer Insights

How Do You Create 'Heroic Content'?
You create heroic content by knowing that is what you are trying to do. You create heroic content by RISKING things (reputation, your brand, your ideas). You create heroic content by rejecting the lemmings rush toward the next Internet marketing tactic and embracing them all IN SERVICE to some greater idea.

What's your company, brand or website's movement, manifesto and who is in your tribe? Immediately after you create heroic content that gets you in the game (your About page for example), then begin asking for help. Don't wait or hesitate.

It will be slow going at first, but hang in there and keep asking. One thing we've learned the hard way is people want to help especially those willing to risk all, to share the "inside baseball" content only they know and people who want to help first and are worried about returns a distant third.

One way you create heroic content is to be a hero and beginning is easier than you think AND much easier than mastering one more soon to be diminishing return tactic. Helping create Heroic Content is our Startup Factory funded startup's mission (http://www.curagami.com). Hope you will join us, help us, criticize us and care.

We are all in. The boats have been burned and we want to make Curagami HELPFUL and WISE beyond its years. Hope you will help.
http://www.curagami.com/featured/social-media-marketing-dead-yes/

& we built on that post on LinkedIn
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/ffq4jhbRZbv

How The World Spends Its Time Online [INFOGRAPHIC]

Klout has become a valuable resource for major brands and businesses looking to maximize their influence through social platforms. Here are some reasons your business should consider using this free online service.

Social Media It's The Conversation, Stupid is about the new rules of branding being created by a social world. If you aren't creating LOVE and winning hearts and minds online this Haiku Deck may help you join the revolution (in a good way). 

As social media changes the web marketers need to inspire the kind of commitment, support and contribution made popular by Wiki-pedia - the Wiki-ization of Marketing is happening. You in?

You may catch Marty combing through Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair at B&N. Why? Fashion mags are great visual marketers - 8 Visual Marketing Tips From Vogue:

• Be specific & BIG NUMBERS are great ways to be specific.
• Be branded – take advantage of existing brands such as Shades of Grey.
• Be topical – March is “fashion week” in NYC and both magazines have extensive features.
• Be welcoming – note how both models look directly out at the viewers (my favorite online engagement pose).
• Use SOUND – “Sexy, Shiny, Bouncy Hair sounds fun. “Full on Fashion Force” sounds forceful. Words create rhythm and sounds that adds to or detracts from compelling images.
• Juxtapose – “street chic” and “fashion force” are examples of creative juxtapositions.
• Use Action Verbs – which of these action verbs AREN’T on either cover? grab, be bold, upgrade, must have, takes on, and rock? Yep, all of those “action verbs” are in sub-headlines.
• Simple Colors – ONLY colors used for headlines and sub-heads are black, white and red.

HUGE NEWS
Scoop.it adding authorship and the ability to post directly to a GooglePlus brand page is HUGE. I love BOTH tools for different things:

* GooglePlus rocks longform content and conversations.
* Scoop.it helps curate the REACH needed to do effective content marketing in today's Content Shock world.

By adding Google authorship Scoop.it creates benefits for the commons as the rising tide of all those well ranked authors tag up AND they give credit back to individual curators. Brilliant and a BIG vote FOR author rank. I believe Scoop.it is the FIRST major "commons" play to take this significant action.

The action is significant because it shares BACK benefit we, the curators who use Scoop.it, create. There are many "commons" around such as Facebook, Twitter and Kickstarter. Most "commons" feed off the power a user brings and multiplies it by the thousands or even millions using their platform.

This is why the "commons" forms the new math, the new "thank you" economy. Problem is most commons are all TAKE and rarely give back or they don't give back anywhere close to the value they've received. Today Scoop.it said they are willing to collaborate with their curators. BRAVO!

The other new feature, the ability to curate directly into Google brand pages, may make those pages actually work. I find it hard to remember to post beyond my personal page. This new Scoop.it feature will make it easy to curate content to CrowdFunde and Scenttrail.

My friend @Bill Gassettchallenged his GPlus army to use Scoop.it the other day. The reaction wasn't as enthusiastic as he or I would have liked (lol). Now there is NO QUESTION that the combination of G+ and Scoop.it makes a more powerful tool set than either alone. So I would challenge my big time G+ friends to add in Scoop.it since that rising tide will lift OUR BOATS :). M

Content curation is all the rage right now. But finding all this great content is time consuming. Fortunately for content marketers, there's an incredibly powerful social media tool that doubles as...

Social Media It's The Conversation, Stupid is about the new rules of branding being created by a social world.

"Being active in social media platforms does not mean that you are guaranteed to get higher rankings and better exposure. Sadly, most companies are failing at social media marketing as they are either not implementing the right tactics to market themselves properly.

And when told to classify the different types of people who are failing at social media marketing, I came up with 3 categories."

Does your business LOVE social media marketing OR are you simply complying with lowest requirements. Take the test to find out and discover tips to learn how to love social media marketing.

UGC = Trusted, You...Not So Much
Love it when someone makes our +CrowdFunde points for us. This post, shared by +Phil Buckley, shows how Millennials trust #UGC  (User Generated Content) more than a website's marketing voice.

Duh, of course they trust #socialmediamarketing  and UGC since it is where they and their friends LIVE via their #smartphones . The CONVERSATION is the new means of mem transfer.

* Will be writing more about this for our blog
http://www.crowdfunde.com* 

"Meme transfer" sounds confusing and dense, but if you think of your products as content and #SMM  as a way to share your content then you are already engaged in "meme transfer". When an article like this one points out who the next generation trusts - their friends on social media - every #Internetmarketer should take notice.

We've not only taken notice we are building a tool to harvest UGC called+CrowdFunde. Good news is Millenials (and soon everyone else btw) trust User Generated Content (UGC). Bad news? Millennials trust UGC and your website doesn't have a way to ask for UGC, analyze it once you get it or take an action based on it. OUCH!

That ouch is why we are spending +Triangle StartUp Factory's money to create CrowdFunde :). Marty   

Love it when someone confirms our thinking
http://www.crowdfunde.com  

Social Media Snob Test
The purpose of social media is to connect, to BE SOCIAL. Better to NOT be on social media than to be on social and look like an arrogant snob. Not being on social can be forgiven. Being a snob in this day an age is difficult to forgie.

You Know Your Company Is A Social Media Snob If...

* You follow less than 50% of your Twitter followers.
- Following a tiny % of your followers is the ultimate snobbery because it limits communication (you can't DM unless you follow) and you can't REWARD unless you follow. 
- When an expert in your area with 10x the following as your company has (at the moment) follows you FOLLOW THEM BACK!!

* You company doesn't Retweet.
- When you Retweet you share someone's take. You are saying, "this is good enough to share" and that statement is a reward and and a way to "mentor" your space.

* Your company doesn't respond to @yourcompany notes.
- Not responding in a timely way to @yourcompany notes is an EPIC customer service fail.

* Your company isn't on GPlus.
- Time to come in for the big win AND Gplus is the most disruptive social net because of its proximity to high yield SEO (duy its GOOGLE) and most business verticals are nascent on GPlus because there is a learning curve.

* Your company isn't having conversations.
- If you are still using social media to push messages without listening and responding you look either clueless or a snob (and neither of those are good).

* Your Company isn't on Instagram or Pinterest.
- Marketing communication is becoming highly visual so to not be on either Instragram or Pinterest is snobby since it feels like insisting we continue to do things the old "talk about ourselves to ourselves" way. 

* Your company isn't creating video.
- Video is highly widget-ized and so easy to share content. Video is also a more universal language. I may not speak english but video, done right, can be a cross cultural tool.  

* Your company[s SMM is highly scripted.
- Days of scripting every interaction with customers is long gone.  

Don't be a social media snob either by intention or ignorance because being a SNOB on social media is the wrong signal to send...always.