Why Our Mascot Hasn’t Got a Name…
When you’re a new parent, you have a name all picked out for your little bundle of joy, right?
But we never got around to giving our mascot a name. And his first birthday is just around the corner! And that’s where you come in…
Would you help us name our mascot? We affectionately call him “the little dude” around the Social Media Examiner offices. We want to make this fun, so we’ve got some great prizes we’ll give away to the readers who come up with the best names. See below for details.
The Dude’s Wild Ride
It’s hard to believe that Social Media Examiner is not yet even a year old! With the help of outstanding writers and a brilliant reader base (yep, that’s you!), we’ve achieved a lot.
5 Ways to Get the Support of Social Media Influencers
It’s the Holy Grail of interactive marketing: getting “social media influencers”—the ones with the voice and the reach, the ones to whom everyone else listens—to endorse and promote what you’re doing.
Recently, my company managed to inspire 60 such influencers to participate in our event, called The Influencer Project, and they even took it upon themselves to help spread the word.
People like Social Media Examiner’s own Michael Stelzner, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Gary Vaynerchuk, David Meerman Scott, and others all signed on. We were grateful beyond belief.
How Big Brands Employ Social Media Marketing
I recently interviewed Andy Sernovitz, founder of the Social Media Business Council, an organization that includes many of the world’s largest brands such as Cisco, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble and Wells Fargo, just to mention a few.
Andy is also author of the book Word of Mouth Marketing and founder of GasPedal, a group that advises big brands such as TiVo, Dell, Sprint and Kimberly-Clark.
During this interview, you’ll gain insight into how large corporations are employing social media and you’ll also gain Andy’s insight into word-of-mouth marketing.
Three Free Social Monitoring Tools Worth Exploration
We live in a world where the entire globe can have access to your name, IP address, photo and all of your public information with a simple search.
Now social media takes it one step further. I not only can find your past exploits online, but I can hear the conversations that the entire globe is having about you, right now, with a simple click (and maybe some typing too).
Twazzup, Addict-o-matic and SocialMention are three free platforms that allow you to measure your social media mettle—or more simply put, see all of the buzz or conversations surrounding your brand online, at any time. Never heard of these platforms? No worries, I’ve got your back!
Facebook Community Pages: What Your Business Needs to Know
Facebook’s new community pages have created a lot of confusion for businesses. Many companies have been surprised (and many angry) to find their brands showing up in community pages that are fully outside of their control.
The root of the anger: Businesses have invested in Facebook pages only to find community pages appearing that seem to compete with their pages.
This article is designed to demystify Facebook community pages and provide you with important actions you can take.
5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan
So you’ve set up your social media empire using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and you’re blogging too.
But how do you make it all work together? You want to reach potential clients and establish your authority online, but what’s your plan?
This article delivers five foolproof steps to get you on your way to finding, formulating and distributing content that will get you noticed. Content could include your own blog posts or links to others people’s work posted on your social networks.
#1: Find Your Target Audience.
The first step in social media planning is largely the first step in identifying your brand—determine who you are and who your customers are.
What unique aspect of your product or service attracts your target population?
How to Drive More Customers to Your Local Business With Social Geotagging
Do you run a local business? Maybe a restaurant, coffee shop or retail outlet? Do you want a fun way to encourage repeat traffic to your business? Does the idea of your customers talking about your business to all their friends sound interesting? If so, you need to pay attention to Foursquare and Geotagging.
What is Geotagging?
Simply put, geotagging is the process of attaching geographical data (longitude and latitude) to photographs, videos, websites, status updates and even emails. This geotagged data shows where the photos, videos, etc., were created or modified.
3 Tips for Managing a Social Media Community
Are you trying to build a community for your company or brand? Are you looking to go beyond just big numbers of Facebook fans or Twitter followers?
This article reveals three important tips you need to know to help build and manage communities.
What Is Community Management?
Previously I wrote examined the different roles for those who work with social media in business. Among the many roles, the community manager is by far the most important because he or she is on the front lines of communication. Here’s how I define community manager:
3 New Studies Show Value of Social Media & Businesses Slow Response
There are some interesting studies surfacing lately in the world of social media. Here’s a summary of three recent research findings covering the benefits of social media marketing, how forums help brands and how businesses are employing social media marketing.
#1: 50% of Small Businesses Say Lead Generation is Biggest Benefit of Social Networking
According to the “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010” from Ad-ology, lead generation is the biggest benefit of social networking for U.S. small businesses.
How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’
A compelling, active Facebook fan page should be an integral part of your marketing plans. With its 350 million users and average daily session time of 25 minutes, Facebook provides an exceptional opportunity for visibility, Google indexing, live search ability, and fan engagement—whether you’re a solopreneur, a large brand or anywhere in between.
But, if you build it, will they come? And if they come, will they stay and engage?
There are two primary components to Facebook fan page engagement: 1) Sharing quality, relevant content and 2) inciting comments. In this article I’ll tell you how to best engage with Facebook fans.
