The Original Social Marketing Tool Kit

While I have enjoyed the polished videos from StomperNet (I am not a member, just a curious browser) as much as the next social marketing “maven”, I had to smirk just a t-e-e-n-s-y bit as I watched their latest video announcing the release of The Social Marketing Tool Kit.

Don Crowther, one the StomperNet faculty waxed on, in his strange computer-like voice, about the “latest trend” in marketing and how the “fast mover” advantage was decreasing. Yes, the video, like the rest of the StomperNet publishing juggarnaut, was well produced and informative.

I have no qualms with the content, in fact, I suppose it is tough to publish any bit of content when you are trying to appeal to the masses of info junkies who scour the net each day to find the next distraction that will keep them from actually having to do some real social marketing and make some real money.

What was funny to me was the way they positioned themselves as leaders in the social marketing field. Most folks, especially the experienced Stompers, would know that social marketing took fire early last year (or before) and that the original “social marketing tool kit” was Jack Humphrey’s Authority Black Book.

This one free resource was single-handedly responsible for a major shift amongst many internet marketers (including some of the big guns) from static html and landing page/PPC only sites to full-fledged authority site building with a Wordpress blog; broadcasting themselves (for free) through as many Web 2 channels (i.e. RSS, Squidoo, Video, plugins, etc.) as they could get their low-paid virtual assistants to handle.

It was also recognized by Mashable.com as 2007’s #1 Free Ebook for Bloggers.

So, I am actually quite pleased to see the guys (and gals?) at StomperNet validate this “trend” albeit 1.5 years late.

Now, when any of my clients question me about this “blog marketing thing” that I am pitching at them, all I will have to do is show them StomperNet’s massive internet presence and Don’s well produced video and tell them that I have been doing exactly that for almost 2 years now.

And, although I have not read StomperNet’s Social Marketing Tool Kit (which I will of course, mainly for the cool smileys and clever clipart) I am sure it will be a big hit with internet marketers.

If you are serious about getting “in-the-trenches” social marketing strategies and tactics, stay tuned for the 2008 version of The Authority Black Book which (I heard form a reliable source) is coming soon…

“Back Door” Social Media Marketing

Would you be surprised to know that for $50 - $100 you could own the “billboard” in your niche, rather than just “rent space” and put up little social media marketing messages here and there?

Imagine being the social media entity rather than signing up and carving out a tiny bit of fleeting content space.

As my copywriting friends would say:

:::: OR ::::

How To Own A Peice Of Your Niche

Believe it or not, it is actually quite simple… You need to own the social media site rather than post to it. Yes, you need to become the Digg in your niche or market and let your competitors and colleagues point, push and pull prospects into your back door.

OK, I can hear you… You are saying to yourself, “Simple? I am no silicon valley or venture cap genius. How could I put together something like Digg?”

Well, the big secret is… Digg, and almost all other social networking or bookmarking sites are customized content management systems (just like Wordpress) that can be customized and installed for less than $100. The software is free, so all you pay for is a bit of design work and server setup.

Yes, it is that simple…

What Your Back Door Would Look Like

Here’s an example to get you thinking…

Let’s say your niche is Alien Invasion Conspiracies and you have registered the domain: invaderspace.com.

You pay someone at oDesk or eLance to install the open source Pligg software anyone can download and customize it a bit with a $20 template you found at a pligg support site.

Bam!! You now own a peice of the Alien Conspiracy market.

Your fellow conspiracists march right over, over-whelmed with glee that someone has finally created a “Digg-style” site that will allow them to commune and share every alien invasion post, story, picture and video they have scoured the net to find.

Hmm…Just like you used to do… before you became the “billboard”.

And remember, back when you were bouncing from one social media site to another, posting comments, voting up stories, and otherwise digging, propelling, faving and bezerking, you always had to provide your…. email address!

Yes, without hesitation, you gladly handed over your email address, created a profile, and contributed authentic, original content… all for free.

If you don’t see the monetization potential of those hot little bits (of data) then you might be in the wrong business.

Go Get Your Billboard

So, don’t hesitate. Get out there and buy a billboard in your particular niche or market. Be original, be unique and, definitely, be specific. Don’t take on Digg or Mixx. Save that for something to do after your first million.

I will keep you posted on my progress as I follow my own advice and put a social media site together. In case you were wondering, it’s not in the Alien Conspiracy niche although, now that I have pondered it a bit, it sounds like a good one.

The niche I am going after has something to do with copywriting and marketing… more on that later.

In the meantime, don’t you have an appointment with a Romanian programmer who is chomping at the bit to install some open-source “gold” for you?

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Don’t Forget Your Niche

Social media marketing can take on many shapes, sizes and iterations. However, most people blindly head down one path with no regard for the folks in their selected niche.

As an example, let me tell you a story that involves my beautiful wife.

My Wife - The Internet Diva

My wife has her own laptop, and as a very “organic” person, likes to go online and learn about things related to natural health & wellness.

She is also a business owner with her own web site (actually it’s a blog but we won’t tell her that for reasons you will understand in a minute) promoting her skin care and massage practice.

She also is a bit of a gadget girl, always “craving” the latest cell phone or Playstation/Xbox and bugs me weekly about getting her a “cute little Mac”.

She is online all the time… she takes webinars, she reads lots of content and has even done some of her own graphic design work -brochures, biz cards, etc.

At first glance, you would correctly presume that my wife is technology and internet savvy.

You may also assume that she subscribes to RSS feeds, reviews social news sites like Digg or Care2 and reads/leaves comments on blogs related to her interests.

Well, while the former is absolutley correct, the latter couldn’t be further from the truth.

I started noticing this little “disconnect” and, since it is my business to know these things, I set up an innocent little “spy campaign” on my wife.

Perched over her shoulder, a few minutes here and there, I watched her browse the internet…

I asked her about the social bookmarking buttons when they presented themselves…

I asked what she thought that giant orange RSS button was…

I told her I wanted to check something and had her scroll down to see the comments and asked her what she thought…

I told her about Connotea and Care2 to see if it perked any interest…

Guess what?

I got nuthin’.

So, I did what any good social media marketer would do… I sat my wife down for a talk.

My Brief Stint as a Social Media Evangelist

I figured that all that was missing here was some breif social media evangelism and then my wife and I would be cheerfully sharing our starred RSS feeds on Google Reader.

The puzzled and somewhat concerned look on her face quckly alerted me that the first minute of this sermon wasn’t going very well.

So I dug in… I gushed, I explained and shared, I illustrated and testified to the joys of bookmarking, the efficiency of RSS, the power of Wordpress, and the social news site brotherhood.

My wife patiently listened and, after I completed my regretably unforgetable monologue, she siad…

“I am just not interested in participating… I just like to read and learn. I don’t care if it’s a blog, I think those comments get in the way and all those little button clutter up the web site.”

Uuuugh… My little world was rocked to the core ;)!!! I kept thinking, “But Rich Schefren said….and Jack Humphrey said…”

“Could there be more people like my wife out there?” I asked myself…

Here I am focusing hours and hours of my work-life on these sure-fire social media marketing techniques and my own wife tells me she simply ignores them.

A Revelation

But then, I thought… this is not bad news, it is actually a serendipitous discovery.

Yes, if I could find out what parts of the social media landscape my wife does travel on, I may be able to expand my marketing reach into areas I have unwittingly ignored.

So, this is my current project. I quietly and carefully peek over her shoulder as she is browsing away, gleaning from her click patterns. I casually converse with her about her new web site “finds” and, of course, check her browser history like a jealous freak -just kidding, I don’t do that last one.

What have I found so far?

Well, although my wife doesn’t realize it, most of her favorite content sites are blogs. Nice clean, well structured blogs, but, nevertheless, they are blogs.

They may not have loads of bookmarking buttons or a prominent RSS feed but they do have the traditional opt-in newsletter form and a place to share comments.

Also, these sites seem to have more pages than posts, in fact most are set up like static html sites. In other words there is no major distinction between pages and posts. The homepage is not the latest 10 posts like most blogs but a static “intro” page.

I also discovered that my wife really likes links, text links. No, not adsense, but anchor text links inside the content. She would frequently browse forward to a product offering from these anchor text links.

Re-Thinking Social Media Marketing in Some Niches

So, unless your target market is 25-35 year old SMMers who frequent Digg or drink up RSS feeds like a cup of Starbuck coffee, you may want to re-think your social media marketing strategy. I have…

Aside from this blog (whose target market is the above), I vow to :

structuring my content toward solid pages of content with post added in over time that point to those pages

add lots of anchor text links that carry my reader to product offerings and related content

create an interactive home page rather than display a list of the latest posts

and cleanly and concisely regulate the social media buttons and RSS feeds

Maybe, one day, my wife will stumble across (no, not StumbleUpon - I know she will never be doing that) one of my “blogs” and add it to her IE favorites.

Then, dear readers, I will have succeeded.

Smart Blog Commenting for Social Media Marketing (Video Intro)

You know, lots of social media “mavens” overlook the power of blog commenting as a legitimate way to add value to your niche. Many marketers look at blog commenting from a quantity perspective and see the act as of commenting as spammy-spam.

However, in it’s purest form, commenting on blogs is the most generous things you can do, given that your comment is thoughtful. After all, you are contributing great content and personal interest to their blog for free.

This quantity over quality mentality also causes many social media marketers to relegate blog commenting to last place because they think they have to put 10-20 comments a day out there.

I created a 10 minute video to put these misconceptions to rest and to show how to do… “Smart Blog Commenting for Social Media Marketers“. This video shows you the quickest and easiest way to increase your number of high-quality backlinks and RSS subscribers without wasting time or spamming.

Links

I mention a couple of things you may want to link to on the video…here’s a few shortcuts for you.

I hope you enjoy the video!

Please share your comments about the video here or…. if there is a particular social media marketing strategy problem you are having and would like to see a tutorial on it, let us know!

All the best,

Tom Deeter
Web2Center.com

The Social Media Paradox

“Doctor, I have 37 fans, 420 friends, 8 stalkers, 13 followers and 27 admirers… So, why am I so lonely?”

Social media is redefining the meaning of “friendship” and leaving millions who are craving for connection starving for more.

Welcome to the social media paradox.

For example…

Here’s a recent email I got after signing up to Mixx.com recently:

Subject: Someone likes you over at Mixx

xxxx1199 thinks you are a really cool person who knows your way around the web. Check
out your new friend’s profile:
http://www.mixx.com/users/xxxx1199

Sounds like a potentially new “friend”, right? So, although I know the game I still couldn’t help but browse over to xxxx1199 (name changed to spare the innocent) and, wow, this guy has a zillion friends! So much for our blossoming friendship, how could he possibly have time..gees, with all the friends he has already.

OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it illustrates the point. A “friend” in the social media sphere is not a friend.

I’m Serious

Some may think I am making a big deal..trying to be controversial or stirring up a semantic debate.

But no, let me assure you, I am serious.

Primarily because I see this “fake friend” mindset brought on by the mind-numbing proliferation of social media infecting an entire generation of young people.

Obviously, there are millions who have a desire for community building, for being part of a team, for getting input from a group or sharing an affinity for something they like. This desire is as old as humanity. Until the advent of social media, the way to participate was usually face to face, hand to hand and, sometimes, heart to heart.

Today, you could join hundreds of social media communities without leaving the coffee shop.

The paradox is, although it is easier than ever to be a part of a personal community, once you do so you’ll never hear the sound of another person voice, the touch of their hand or feel the emotion in their heart.

Sidenote: But…you may get an email assuring you that you are a “really cool person”.

A Challenge

This is an important subject, especially to social media marketers, because we have a choice:

Do we contribute to this fake friend revolution or do we genuinely participate?

So, my challenge to you is the following:

Don’t collect friends like baseball cards.

Reply to your friends, fans, admirers and followers…get to know them…listen…heck, give them a call.

Don’t post thoughtless comments for the sake of a backlink.

Offer to do guest articles for each other, or otherwise increase the dialogue.

Create a Squidoo or Hubpages site and promote it for a mutual charity.

Don’t brown nose but compliment aspects of each others site or content that you like.

In short… Give more than you are giving now.

I promise to take my own advice and perhaps, with our collective effort, we can chart a better course for social media and create genuine, lasting friendships in the process.