October 11, 2011 – SEMpdx welcomed back one of its favorite speakers Tuesday night. Ian Lurie, from Portent Interactive, joined us for this month’s event to explain how social media suffers from a real lack of legitimacy and what we as marketers can do to change that.
Likening the mainstream’s perception of social media to the computer game, Dungeons and Dragons, Ian noted that while social media has gained acceptance, many businesses still don’t understand how to use it. He went on to share six rules to consider that will help you successfully impact your company’s bottom line.
– Know the system. The best way to become knowledgeable is to simply get on the system and click on everything. Know the little things and you’ll prevent subtle mistakes that will end up hurting the legitimacy of your social media efforts.
– Guide the story and work with everyone. Be strategic in your content curation as you find relevant articles your audience will like. Carefully plan your scheduling and utilize tools such as the N-Gramanator.
– Don’t be a troll. Mentor, support and encourage. Always respond to comments, but do so in an appropriate and positive way – even when you want to reach through the monitor and strangle someone.
– Go to your customers. Don’t expect them to come to you. Strategically place your Facebook like button on your ad’s landing page, making it easy for customers to interact with you. Also, be sure to utilize YouTube, as it’s the second largest search engine on the internet.
– Learn your audience’s unique language. Have them come to you via their search term and then translate it to them on your site.
– Get a little cynical. In Ian’s words, “accept bogosity”, or the level of bogusness you have to go through to sell a product. Realize there are some things you need to give up in order to make yourself understood and, ultimately, improve revenue.
Implementing these rules will make all the difference as you truly invest in your social media strategy and help to legitimize it among the mainstream.
Sarah is a search marketing consultant, helping clients improve ROI through paid search, SEO and social media initiatives. She is also the Official SEMpdx Event Blogger and can be found at all of the monthly events.
I agree with ‘a real lack of legitimacy’ basically what is happening in Social Media scenario is that every body is running in the same direction, we are not seeing anybody attempting anything revolutionary.
They key to social media for business is to actually be social. Don’t use the medium as another place to advertise or push promotions. Actually have a conversation with your fans and followers and take what they say into consideration. It’s like an ongoing focus group.