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Here’s an exciting piece from the Web 2.0 Expo. Just cruise through this PowerPoint.
Image via Wikipedia
As I watch Marketeers working on getting a handle on using Social Media about the only people I see making a go at it are the Marketeers selling Programs and Products to fellow Marketeers. “Make a Killing On Facebook” or “Using MySpace to Grow your Millions” then there is my personal favorite, just fill in the blank with any Social Media Site you can think of “Secrets of ___________ Reveled. Grab your share with this Money Making Program Now!”
It’s always educational to see what the Marketing Guru’s are peddling and it’s apparent they’ve begun the harvest in the Social Media Niche. Sometimes it pays to stay cynical, I know when I read a blogger decrying the monetization of Social Media he’s probably been burned buying a “Secrets to Blog Monetization” Program and discovered it’s not so easy to make his blog a cash machine. So off he goes reading up on the subject. Researching the best 3 column WordPress Theme to monetize his niche. Downloading this plug-in and that Widget, Researching the latest Adsense alternative advertising programs like Social Spark looking for the easy softer way. I read Craig Andrew”s Internet Business Blog religiously. His research, writing and advice for blog Monetization are Best in Class as far as I’m concerned. So save yourself from the hassle and just admit you’d like to make good money with your Blog also and remember “Times They are a Changing” It’s OK to Blog for money.
When there’s literally 1,000’s of Social Media Sites available to the intrepid Internet Marketeer to use when implementing an online marketing plan the biggest challenge is using the right mix of Social Media Sites. They should maximizes your time and effort effectively and are getting the job done. It’s imperative for success that the Sites being utilized in the campaign actually do the task the marketeer is asking it to perform. It’s all well and good to use a Social Media Site as a Marketing Tool it’s not so good if your understanding of how to utilize the Site as a Tool clashes with the reality of the Sites Capabilities. If your using Twitter for it’s audience building capabilities as an example isn’t it imperative that Twitter actually excels at that task. The actuality is Twitter is a poor audience builder but a great aggregator for Marketeers that already have a large audience in place. A recent piece by Thomas Schmitz “Twitter Secrets Reveled” outlines the perils of making false assumptions about Twitter’s capabilities as an audience builder.
Plan correctly: There is no denial that planning is foremost in any action/activity, but what really is the crux, is to have the right mix of plans, goals, and detailed sub-plans with the design of a quick feedback mechanism to revise whatever is needed. Planned properly, all actions will produce the desired results, and when it does not, there is already a sub-plan to correct/remedy the situation. This methodology has been the backbone of successful marketing for eons but seems to be lacking with the new breed “Social Media” Marketeer.
The assumption of the Social Media Toolbox as being so powerful and so enabling that the mere act of Site Membership leads to riches is of course ludicrous. “It doesn’t matter guys, hey I’m a member here also, follow my affiliate link and buy my affiliate product. I’m not a yucky marketeer, I Blog. I have 876 Friends here, won’t you be my friend also?”
Turns out Social Media Marketing isn’t so much about Social Media as it is about Marketing. It’s always been find an audience and offer Products that appeal to their wants and needs or brings solutions to their problems. The revolution of Social Media is one of democratization of the Social Communications and the breaking of barriers that impeded that communication in the past. It’s not a revolution of Marketing! Until one realizes this your doomed as a Marketeer in the Social Media Arena.
The really great Marketeers using Social Media today have a keen understanding of the effectiveness of the Tools we call “Social Media” and rather than reinventing marketing they’ve managed to apply the tremendous leverage offered by Social Media within the frame work of proven marketing tactics and techniques that are well planned and executed.
Here’s an excellent tutorial from the Gang at Digital 360 for that intrepid Blogger mentioned above. Just cruise through this PowerPoint with the included controls.
Image via WikipediaI’m not going to give (I Promise) the “Online Video Revolution” lecture that has been pounded into our mass consciousness these last few years. After you’ve heard Captain Kirk’s show ending monologue a few hundred times through endless seasons of Star Trek reruns you kind of get the point. It’s a fine example of collective redundancy and needs to be avoided at all cost. However, when discussing Social Media Tools I’d rather just get the video as Social Media discussion out of the way. It is an important component of our Social Media Toolbox but video does present problems that are either mostly ignored, dismissed outright as unsolvable or nowhere to be found on anyone’s radar. JD Rucker’s excellent piece “Digg is no longer a Social News Site” on the Soshable.com Blog highlights a problem directly caused by the explosion of online video.
It’s the potential of Social Media Homogenization where Sophomoric Pranks, Outrageous Behavior and American Idol Rejects usurp the onpage conversation and “substance” becomes something abused rather than a measure of conversational quality. This is the challenge facing all Social Media Sites. It’s the continuation of “Sweeps Week” and Social Media Sites find themselves in a conundrum. Resist the appeal of the “Clip Culture” in the battle for page impressions or join the singularity.
Online Video has a way of appealing to societies lowest common denominator despite the best efforts of Content Producers to churn out quality Video Productions but these video’s get easily overshadowed by teenagers behaving poorly or worse. Video production by the proletariat isn’t the panacea promised and I’ve yet to hear about the next Spielberg, Tarantino, Wilder, Capra, Wyler, Huston, Hitchcock or Ford who cut his teeth producing knock offs of the “Pervert Excited by Mating Bears ” Series on MetaCafe.
We’re all doomed to get lost in the malaze of Social Media as People Magazine on Steroids. It’s not a comfortable outcome, at least not for me. The momentum of American tastes for all things in bad taste seems to be winning out in the Social Media Arena. Where’s Doctor Who when you need him?
I was going to post my list of 265 Online Video Sharing Sites but I’m debating if it would be a positive contribution to our Social Media collective good. Video as an online Social Media Tool remains full of unused potential and in all likely hood it’s positive aspects for use in Social Media is being far out weighted by it use as a Social Media “Weapon of Mass Destruction”.
Maybe next time.
photo credit: ƒelixmolterAll The Best
Paul
Image by bashford via FlickrHere’s a list of websites from the good people over at Wikipedia that has a list of Social Media Sites and some other website lists you might find at least interesting if not useful. Hopefully that makes some sense. As we discussed in the early post in this Series, “Social Media as an Internet Marketing Tool” there are literally many 100’s if not 1,000’s of website in the Social Media Category. Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Video Sites, Social Action Sites, News Sites, Blogs, Blog Networks, Photo Sharing Sites, Niche Sites of all description. Being this is primarily an Internet Marketing and Social Media Blog lets focus our list of lists in that direction.
eConsultant’s Web 2.0 Directory has a very comprehensive listing of 1200+ Social Media Sites as well as a listing of 62 Video Sharing Sites. Nicely Done and Thanks eConsultant.
I have a comprehensive list of over 200 video sharing sites that I’ll post here soon. Having cut my teeth in the World of Video and as the Author of 2 eBooks on the subject (Internet Video Dynamite and Video eBook Magic) I’m thrilled with the rapid growth of Video in our online universe. As a marketeer the power of Video Marketing should never be over looked. If your looking to gain a quick start into the World of Video Marketing and Video Production my friend Perry Lawrence of AskMrVideo.com is offering $1 no hollar 21 Day Trial Membership. The learning resources on his site, the hyper active Discussion Forum and the available software downloads makes this one of the best $1 investments you could ever make for your Internet Marketing Business.
So as you can see the available Social Media channels open for Internet Marketing is vast and managing a comprehensive Social Media Marketing Plan could be extremely difficult and time consuming. Finding tools and resources to make these task manageable is paramount or you could find yourself spinning your wheels or investing many hours in front of the monitor. So out next task is to somehow narrow our list and maximize and leverage our effort in this arena. More on how this can be accomplished in the next few post in this series. Here’s a few list that can help you right away. Guido Nussbaum’s Site “Easy Viral Traffic” has a nice list of Social Bookmarking Sites that can drive traffic to your website or Blog. I also 2nd his suggestion to use the powerful Social Bookmarking tool “socialmarker” It’s Free and a huge time saver.
That still leaves us with a pretty big universe of Social Media Sites to wok with and honestly it’s possible that what works for me won’t for you. It may be your niche responds differently than mine or my material doesn’t resonate with a particular Social Media Site when your material does. So a considerable amount of experimentation and testing is recommended. As a marketer that shouldn’y be something we’re not doing anyway. You do test don’t you? Anyway Jack Spriko has done us all a favor by applying some methodology and his “Social Bookmarking Links Worth Building” list is well researched and spot on.
Next Post we discuss some Step by Step Methods to get your Social Media campaign moving forward.
All The Best
Paul
Internet Marketer’s should be on the constant look out for Internet Marketing Tools to put in the “ole” tool kit. They can vary greatly in price and usability as well as function. As a practical matter they don’t or shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. Many of the very best are available absolutely free and in future posts in this series we will cover many of the must have Internet Marketing Tools.
Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.
A lot of people only think of MySpace and Facebook when they hear or read the phrase “Social Media” but those sites are only a small snippet of the Social Media sites available online. They fall under the “Social Networking” sub-group of Online Social Media. Social Media is an umbrella term that covers many types of Social Websites. There are literally 100,s if not 1,000’s of Social Media Sites. Here’s a link to the TraffikD Blog which has one of the most comprehensive lists of Social Media Sites I’ve found (over 400) broken into distinct categories. It’s not a complete list not even close (I have a list of over 200 Video sharing sites alone and TraffikD lists only 10 Video Sharing Sites) but worth bookmarking none the less. The number of Social Media Sites continues to grow and proliferate on the internet but as a Tool of Internet Marketing we can concentrate on a much smaller group.
Some Amazing Social Media Facts Marketer’s need to know:
As you can see Social Media Presents an opportunity unlike any other for todays intrepid Internet Marketeer. It’s an area that shouldn’t be neglected but it’s also full of myth and peril if not approached and executed properly. A Pioneer in the use of Social Media is Jack Humphrey, Author of the Renowned “Authority Black Book” the Premier work to date on the topic and a must read. He’s recently penned a small article on this very subject and I encourage you to read it. With Jack’s permission I’ve Published it here on RichNonJerk.com for my readers benefit. It’s an almost Step by Step break down on using Social Media as an Internet Marketing Tool. Enjoy
Social Marketing Basics: What is Social Media Marketing by Jack Humphrey
Next in the series we will identify some of the Social Media Sites you should be involved in and why.
Stay Tuned
All The Best
Paul
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