What if you could understand why your audience shares some information and not other? That would make your content stand out from the competition.

The Science of Sharing

30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month, including blog posts, links, news stories and photo albums.

HubSpot’s Dan Zarrella has found that three things must happen to get your content shared.

First, people must be exposed to your content (be a fan on Facebook or follow you on Twitter). Second, they must be aware of your content (meaning they actually see it). Finally, they must be motivated by something in your content to share it.

Many articles have been written on how to increase your audience size and make people aware of your content, including these by Mari Smith and Denise Wakeman. This article will focus on the motivations for sharing.

The New York Times recently partnered with Latitude Research to unpack the psychology of sharing. Based on their study of 2500 participants (and some other recent research), here are 9 reasons why your customers aren’t sharing your content.

#1: Your customers don’t trust you

Stated plainly, people won’t share your content if they don’t find you or your content to be trustworthy.

The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer found that globally only 56% of people trust businesses to do what is right. However, in the US, the UK and Japan, that number fell significantly between 2010 and 2011.

Notice the evolution in trust.

#2: Your customers don’t care about your brand

That hurts to hear, but customers have short memories. They wonder “what have you done for me lately?”

Your customers are looking for valuable information, great deals and a chance to meet other people who share their interests. As soon as you stop offering these things, your fans will go looking elsewhere.

They may not feel a commitment to your brand, but you can keep them interested in your content. The next couple of points offer some remedies you can implement immediately.

#3: Your posts are boring

“Don’t be boring,” says Grandma Mary, the alter-ego of Social Media Examiner’s Facebook community manager, Andrea Vahl. People are far more likely to share something they find intriguing or funny.

Look at the case of Volkswagen’s videos. Their Cannes-winning episode, The Force, a spoof on Star Wars, earned over 40 million views. None of their other videos, more traditional marketing content, came close to 1 million views. Of course, most of us would love a million views. But look at the relative difference in sharing power.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

#4: People care about causes more than brands

The New York Times found that people are more likely to share about something they are passionate about.

Let’s face it. People rarely wake up wondering what they can do for XYZ brand today. But they do dream of ways to help their favorite cause. Whether it’s ending poverty, supporting Greenpeace or advancing a local charity, many people give sacrificially to help things they care about.

Notice how CREE has taken a boring subject like lighting and made it a mission and revolution to change lighting in public places across America.

While not a cause in the humanitarian sense, this does get people excited about being part of something bigger than your brand or product.

#5: People share to build relationships with others

Research shows that people value relationships with other people, not necessarily with brands. They are definitely looking for community. Your brand might be able to create a platform for that community.

Here are two interesting factoids from The New York Times study:

• 78% of respondents use links to stay connected to people they might not otherwise stay in touch with.
• 73% of respondents said sharing content helps them find people with common interests.

Red Bull does a nice job of sharing content their fans might be willing to share with their friends.

Notice how Red Bull asks a question and then encourage sharing.

#6: Customers are looking for validation

Some things haven’t changed since junior high. We are all trying to build credibility in the eyes of our friends. We want to be seen as experts in some area(s).

The way we do that online is through the content we share.

68% of The New York Times study participants said they share content as an advertisement for themselves. They want to give others a better sense of who they are.

#7: People share to manage information

You’ve heard it said, “I’m just thinking out loud.” Today many people think out loud through social media.

In fact, 73% of the study participants said they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it.

Additionally, 85% of respondents said that reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events.

Social media scientist Dan Zarrella found the following words generate the most comments in his research.

Notice how popular words like "giveaway" and "jobs" are.

#8: You’ve misunderstood your audience

If you’ve been around marketing for very long, you understand the concept of a marketing persona. This idea has been around for at least 20 years and advocates understanding your customer profile by creating detailed pictures of your ideal customer(s).

The New York Times study found there are six sharing personas for online fans and I’ve listed a seventh based on my experience and our audience. Understanding who your customers are can help you identify common motivators:

1. Altruists—Altruists share content out of a desire to be helpful and aspire to be seen as a reliable source of information. Preferred tools: Facebook and email.
2. Careerists—Careerists are well-educated and seek to gain a reputation for bringing value to their networks. They prefer content that is more serious and professional in tone. Preferred tools: LinkedIn and email.
3. Hipsters—Hipsters are younger sharers who have always lived in the “information age.” They use Twitter and Facebook to share cutting-edge and creative content. They share content to build their online identity. Preferred tools: Facebook and Twitter.
4. Boomerangs—Boomerangs seek validation and thrive on the reaction of others to their content, even when it’s negative responses. Preferred tools: Facebook, email, Twitter and blogs, wherever people will engage them.
5. Connectors—Connectors see content sharing as a means of staying connected to others and making plans. They are more relaxed in their sharing patterns. Preferred tools: Facebook and email.
6. Selectives—Selectives are more thoughtful in what they share and with whom they share it. They personalize their sharing and expect responses to their content. Preferred tool: email.

Although this is not based on The NY Times research, I’d like to add a seventh persona to the list:

1. Trendsetters—Trendsetters are thought leaders, marketers and business leaders who purposefully seek to stay abreast of breaking news and trends in their industry, sharing it quickly and aggressively. These people are typically seen as experts (or aspire to be seen as such). Preferred tools: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

A couple of observations: 1) notice how many of these personas prefer email; 2) notice that the platform significantly predicts the motivation pattern.

#9: People are more personal with email

The study authors discovered that people have not abandoned email. In fact, participants share most frequently through email and consider it more private. Therefore they have higher expectations for responses through email.

Some final pointers

If you want a deeper understanding of the psychology of sharing, see this article by Dr. Rachna Jain.

One of the most overlooked rules in content creation is the rule of simplicity. Shorter posts (80 characters on Facebook) get shared 27% more frequently. Keep your writing style at a fifth grade or lower level of understanding.

Create a sense of urgency in your writing. Give people a reason to respond now. If they don’t act immediately, they probably never will.

Finally, remember that getting your content shared is just the first step. See this as part of longer-term strategy of building a loyal following.

Share your comments!

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your comments on how you get your audience to share your content. If you have any stories, please leave them in the comments box below.

But what are the implications for businesses that get serious about social media? Are there hidden dangers lurking for companies whose employees are “too good” with social media? This article will explore five benefits and five threats of celebrity employees.

The Employee Celebrity Is Born

Organizations around the world are wisely trying to dive into social media to take advantage of the new opportunities. The promises of “crowdsourcing” ideas and creating “viral” success stories have a huge appeal to companies of all sizes and industries. However, in doing this, companies are also creating something they never anticipated: the employee celebrity.

The Shift to Managing Talent

An employee celebrity is someone in your organization who has a positive reputation apart from or in addition to your corporate brand. Social media allows for great personal branding in addition to corporate branding, so a shift in power and need happens when employees become celebrities and begin to see themselves as talent rather than average employees.

When you’re working with talent, there are inherent benefits and potential landmines. Just ask any coach or owner of a professional sports team. Here are five opportunities and five threats with employee celebrities:

Five Opportunities of Celebrity Employees

#1: A Human Connection

Customers and prospects get to connect with a human they trust at your company who’s genuinely worth giving attention to. As a result, brand awareness, customer service and increased engagement opportunities occur. (Example: Frank Eliason at Comcast, known as @comcastcares on Twitter.)

#2: Enhanced Credibility

Your celebrity employee brings your company credibility it never had or hasn’t had in a long time. (Example: Robert Scoble during his Microsoft days.)

#3: Better Insight

Your celebrity employee knows the heartbeat of your customers and can accurately anticipate reactions to policy changes, new products or brand adjustments. (Example: Lynsay Caylor at Pilot Travel Centers listens, learns, reports and acts because of their Facebook page.)

#4: Enhanced Influence

Your celebrity employee has the attention and trust of interested and potential customers. These are the first people likely to spend money with your company. All they have to do is talk about it and watch the fans run with it. (Example: Steve Jobs is the ultimate celebrity employee.)

#5: Crisis Management

Your celebrity employee can set the record straight if a PR crisis occurs because the platform is already in place and trust exists between the employee and his or her following. (Example: Steve Rubel has addressed specific situations when his employer, Edelman PR, came under fire.)

Five Threats of Celebrity Employees

#1: The Power Player

Your celebrity employee develops a following that is more loyal to him or her than to your brand, products or services and attempts to wield that power to make changes the company doesn’t want to make. The celebrity knows he or she has influence with customers and they’re willing to use it for personal benefits rather than corporate benefits.

#2: The Gunslinger

Your employee celebrity angers customers with an idea, opinion or mistake that then reflects badly on the company and creates a PR crisis. Often this kind of celebrity employee will apologize but also relishes the additional attention that comes from the controversy.

In 2009, James Andrews, an employee for Ketchum PR, was flying into Memphis to do a presentation to their client, FedEx. After he arrived in Memphis to go to FedEx headquarters, he tweeted that “he would die if he had to live here“.

The people at FedEx saw it and called him out on it. Then the whole thing went public and Ketchum PR had its own PR situation. Ironically enough, Andrews was going to talk to FedEx about the power of social media.

#3: The Chatterbox

Your celebrity employee accidentally or unknowingly reveals secret corporate information and your company has to decide how to deal with the information leak. The tendency will be for the leadership or employee celebrity him- or herself to pull back from the public discussion after a situation like this, but you want to deal with it proactively and likely publicly through the same means that caused the trouble in the first place.

#4: The Free Agent

Your celebrity employee decides to leave the company for a new job and take his or her following along. The opportunity for the company is to decide if they did everything they could to retain the employee. This also supports the idea of getting more people in the company involved so if one person leaves, you haven’t lost an entire segment of your conversations.

#5: The Diva

Celebrity employees may get so focused on celebrity status that they’re difficult to work with or merely uninterested in the normal work because they’re so focused on growing their tribe. Unfortunately, this person has seen your company as a stepping-stone to greater things for a long time. Now it’s just more obvious. Despite the potential frustration, don’t burn bridges here because you might have a relationship with a rising star.

The Adjusted Reward System

The thing that makes celebrity employees unique within the structure of your company is that previously the employee’s primary rewards were a paycheck, occasional encouragement, and the hope for a promotion someday.

Now, however, they can create a following that cares more about them than their own manager probably does. The company keeps on supplying the paycheck and the employee keeps on fulfilling his or her role, but the attention from the customers creates a reward all its own.

You Need Each Other More Than You Think

The irony in most cases is that the employee attained “celebrity” status in large part because of the company he or she worked for. The company name backing them gave immediate authority to the public.

The employee’s own abilities, however, took the company name and endowed authority to the level that made it truly beneficial to both the company and the employee. They need each other more than they think they do.

The pressure social media and employee celebrities bring to the workplace is mostly positive. It changes the dynamic from “human resources” to “talent management” and that’s really a good thing for everyone.

Businesses will get better people, employees will be better people, and customers reap the benefits from the whole arrangement. Employee celebrities will be viewed as a threat in some companies, but they’ll be rock stars in other companies. Social media gives every organization yet one more thing to consider for the future of their business.

So, do the benefits outweigh the threats? Does your business have a celebrity employee? Let us know what you think in the comment box below.

There’s a lot of misconceptions and frustrations floating around when it comes to Facebook.

In this article, I’ll help debunk some of the big Facebook myths that may be preventing you from an amazing opportunity.

Why Facebook Marketing?

First and foremost, Facebook, like other social media, is a phenomenal way to become more visible and successful by making a face for yourself online.

Facebook is now the largest social network on the planet with over 500 million active users, long ago surpassing former social networking giant MySpace—and it continues to grow at 1 million new users a week.

Considering those numbers, you have to ask yourself—do you think your target market might be there? And if you’re not there, what might you be missing?

Myth #1: “It’s Just for Kids”

For those still skeptical, a common objection is that most of Facebook’s users are of a younger demographic and therefore there aren’t any benefits to using it to market their business.  However, you may be surprised to find out that according to January 2010 statistics, the 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base, and the 55+ audience grew an incredible 922.7% in 2009 alone.

Plus, compare the low to no cost of using Facebook—essentially just your Internet connection—to other marketing and advertising methods such as the Yellow Pages, the newspaper, TV and radio, and you’ve got a pretty convincing case for why you should be building a presence on Facebook.

In addition to the demographics, there are a few other myths in particular I want to address so you can start seeing the results and opportunities that so many other business owners already enjoy.

Myth #2: “Facebook takes WAY too much time.”

This is probably the most frequent concern that I hear.  It’s true that it can be a major time-sink if you let it —but know that it doesn’t have to be.  You need to be a little bit ruthless with yourself, especially if you’re using Facebook for both business and keeping up with friends and family.

People aren’t kidding when they say social media can be addictive.  But if you’re avoiding Facebook because of fears about it taking too much time, you’re really missing out on important networking opportunities and conversations.

If you think about comparing it to traditional business networking and the traveling and time commitment that takes, you’ll begin to realize that networking on Facebook is great because it can be done at your convenience.  That’s not to say it has to completely replace local or face-to-face networking, but it can certainly supplement it.

Specific Strategies

So how can you really leverage your time instead of just poking around trying to figure out how anyone is ever going to find out about your business?

First, the biggest thing to understand is why you’re on Facebook.  What’s your strategy?  What are your goals?  Again, if you don’t know why you’re there, it becomes a lot easier to waste time aimlessly floating around.

What can you do instead?

Here are a few tips and techniques to help you achieve maximum visibility in minimum time:

• Before anything else, alter your notification settings under “Account Settings” and “Notifications” and turn most of the notifications off. (You want to come to Facebook for a set amount of time, and if you’re getting notifications in your email every time someone interacts with your profile you, will become too distracted!)
• Ignore or block frivolous applications.
• Update your status regularly.
• Skim through the news feed on the home page, which is composed of all of your friends’ updates.  If something interesting catches your eye, hit the “like” button or comment on it.
• Check your wall and if anyone has commented to you, quickly respond.
• On the right-hand side of the home page, see who among your friends is having a birthday and wish them a happy one.
• On the top right of your home page, handle any requests you have waiting.
• If you have an event going on, such as a local workshop or a teleseminar, announce it using the Events application.
• If you have a blog, use the NetworkedBlogs or Notes applications to import your blog posts, which will then appear in your friends’ and/or page supporters’ news feeds.

Bring your blog to Facebook with the NetworkedBlogs application.

• Post links to interesting sites or articles you come across by adding the Share on Facebook bookmarklet to your browser.
• If you use Twitter, install the application on Facebook called Selective Tweets to selectively post your tweets as status updates.
• Sign up for a free Hootsuite account and use it to update your status on multiple social networking profiles simultaneously including Facebook.

Make it a Habit

So, block out time to use Facebook in your schedule.  People laugh, but set a timer if you need to! Think of it as part of your marketing strategy.

If you’re new to Facebook, yes, you may need to spend an hour a day getting acclimated and developing your profile in the beginning, but you can really make an impact in much shorter amounts of time once you’ve gotten used to how it all works.  Commit to being judicious with your time.

Myth #3: “Facebook alone will get you clients and customers.”

This would be wonderful if it was true, of course.  Do people get clients and customers as a result of being on Facebook? Absolutely.  But throwing up a profile and expecting the money to roll in is not going to happen.

You’d be surprised how many people end up discouraged because they’ve been on Facebook a good while and they’re not getting the desired results.  Most of the time it’s because they don’t understand how Facebook fits into their overall marketing picture.

It’s really about consumers consuming what it is you are putting out there—which essentially, is content.  You’re steadily and gradually building momentum from relationships—the “know, like and trust factor” and word of mouth—to traffic, subscribers and eventually, sales.

Facebook is excellent for establishing credibility and expertise, exposing your brand and finding out what people want and need so that you can create and package those solutions and give it to them.

Honestly, there is no faster way to create credibility and brand recognition and quickly connect to hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for what you have to offer.

But your ultimate goal shouldn’t be to use Facebook (or any social network) as a direct sales channel. Before you even get on Facebook, you should have a website or blog to drive people to first. You need to be able to continue to build those relationships outside Facebook.  And the best way to do that is to have a way to get people on your email list.

People don’t buy right off of Facebook.  They also don’t usually buy from you the first time they visit your site, right?  You have to build up their know, like and trust.  But Facebook is amazing for building that familiarity and credibility and for driving people to your site so they can get to know even more about you.

Myth #4: “I already have a personal profile so I don’t need a business page.”

No matter the size of your business, it’s a good idea to set up a page.

For those of you who aren’t aware of a Facebook page (formerly known as a fan page), it’s a separate page from your personal profile, and many people use it for their business.

“Like” has replaced “Fan” terminology on Facebook.

Facebook pages are great for a number of reasons:

• Pages allow you to keep your personal info separate from your business info.
• Pages are public, which means that they are visible to the search engines and are not behind a login like personal profiles are (so be sure to use keywords pertaining to your business in the title of your page if you can—Facebook is ranked very highly in the search engines and you can benefit from this!).
• Pages are great for communicating with your supporters (formerly “fans”) and listening to, answering and updating them.
• Pages help spread viral awareness of your brand and business—a key aspect is that when people who “like” your page interact with it, this activity shows up in the news feeds of all of their friends.

I Have a Page. Now What?

Ok, now that you know why they’re important, how do you use a page successfully?

Here are just a few ways:

• Keep your page updated with content, such as pulling in your blog posts and sharing links.
• Ask open-ended questions and engage your supporters whenever possible.
• Treat your supporters to “exclusive” offers and content that not everyone else gets. Make them understand that they’re getting something special by supporting your business or brand on your page.
• Add the Static FBML application to create a simple form on your page for people to sign up for your newsletter, free report or seminar.
• Let your friends know about your page by clicking the link that says “Suggest to Friends” under your picture.

Now It’s Your Turn

Let’s hear your thoughts. Have you encountered any myths that you would add to this list?  Or were you a former Facebook skeptic turned believer? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below.

Unfortunately, trust is on the decline.   The percentage of people who view their friends as credible sources of information about a brand has fallen from 45% in 2008 to 25% in 2010, according to Edelman’s 2010 Trust Barometer study.

That’s an alarming statistic for marketers wanting to tap into the power of word of mouth through social media marketing.  This article will provide three simple steps you can take to ethically market with social media.

What’s The Problem

Some marketers have cited this decline in credibility as a result of “friends” becoming defined more loosely because of social media. Sure, we’re Facebook friends with someone and we’re Twitter followers of someone, but are we really friends with them? Do we trust the word of mouth recommendations of people we’re Facebook friends with and Twitter followers of?

It’s become a common tactic for marketers to send influential social media types free products, hoping they endorse the brand/product on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and anywhere else online.

Perhaps consumers have become skeptical from seeing one too many upbeat tweets and blog posts from someone they’ve friended sharing their love for a brand or product.

The Solution

Consumer skepticism of endorsements in social media can be reversed when marketers diligently and deliberately follow these three actions:

1. It’s vital for marketers to ask the online influentials they’ve pitched to disclose when they’ve received product samples or any other incentive.
2. It’s also vital for marketers to disclose their relationship with people they’ve targeted to spark word of mouth online.
3. Honesty of the relationship between a business and a person is non-negotiable. It’s best to disclose relationships early and often in all social media venues.

On blogs, disclosure is easy. Bloggers simply need to clearly mention somewhere in a post that they were approached to write about a company’s product or service. Such a line could read, “I received [product name] from [company name] and here’s my opinion…”

On Twitter and Facebook, disclosure isn’t as easy due to space limitations. Using special hashtags is one way to disclose relationships. For example, #samp is being used by influential twitterers to denote when they’ve received a free sample from a company. Another disclosure tool gaining popularity is one of the six Twitter-friendly disclosure statements from cmp.ly. (For detailed guidance on disclosure in social media, read the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s Guide to Social Media Disclosure.)

#1: Demand Disclosure

"Full disclosure assures consumers that testimonials are truthful and trustworthy." Paul Rand

Honesty of opinion is vital. As marketers, we can only provide online influentials with information and encourage them to tell others. What they tell others is up to the individual and not the marketer.

The instant marketers begin trying to manipulate what people say online, we lose. We lose by allowing word of mouth to lose its place as the most credible form of marketing.

#2: Encourage Honesty

"...the reason word of mouth is so effective is that it is understood to be authentic." Robert Weissman

It’s the responsibility of marketers to ensure disclosure happens. As marketers, we must educate and inform the online influentials we work about the importance of disclosing relationships.

Furthermore, we must monitor compliance and if disclosure doesn’t occur, marketers must take appropriate action. Such action may range from re-educating online influentials about disclosure needs to no longer working with influentials who show a pattern of not disclosing relationships.

#3: Monitor Compliance

"Checking to see if one of our influencers posted proper disclosure is easy. We know who we reached out." John Bell

What are your thoughts? How can word of mouth remain credible in social media marketing?

The best content in social media inspires, informs, educates or entertains (and if you’re really lucky, it does all four!).  But how do you create content that goes viral?

What follows are seven strategies you can employ to help your content succeed.

The idea for this post came from Jay Baer’s excellent article on creating reusable social media content, which defined how companies can generate more value by repurposing existing content.

Content Creation Is Easier Than Ever

With the growing number of social media tools coming online each day, creating content is easier than ever. You can grab a bunch of pictures from your camera and create an Animoto slideshow in just a few steps. You can also upload these pictures to Facebook and Twitter using sites like Twitpic or Tweetphoto. By adding captions and explanations, you help those in your network share the experience with you.

Will They Notice if You Create It?

Similarly, it’s reasonably easy to get started with blogging.  The challenge is, even though content is easy to produce (and a lot of people are actively creating it), how do you create powerful content that actually gets attention?

The answer to this lies at the intersection of neuroscience, individual psychology and group dynamics. Here’s a bit more detail.

#1: The Cocktail Party Phenomenon

In terms of neuroscience, there are a few concepts you need to know. The first is the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS is one of the structures in the brain responsible for orientation and attention. Most commonly, the RAS is associated with the concept of selective attention, which means that we naturally orient to information or ideas that we are invested in.

An example of the RAS at work would be in a crowded room where you can’t hear much of anything, but you suddenly turn to someone who has just used your name in conversation. As our names are one thing we are clearly interested and invested in, we naturally focus more fully when someone mentions us.

One strategy is to create content that is relevant and meaningful. Sounds obvious, right?

But the trick is that it needs to be relevant, meaningful and usable. Adult learning theory says that adults are much more interested in content that addresses a specific problem they are having right now. If you want your social media content to stand out, don’t be afraid to get specific and target your audience very tightly. The more relevant your content is to a specific group of people, the greater attention it will receive.

For example, let’s say that you’re a time management expert. You have productivity tips that would help everyone, but you’ll get more attention and notice if you target the tips to a specific group, such as “time management for working Moms.”

#2: More Formats: Better Learning

The second concept related to neuroscience is the idea of assisting people to interact with your content in multiple ways. The concept of “multimodal learning” explains that people are more likely to learn and retain information when it is presented in multiple modalities such as written (visual) and aural (auditory) at the same time. Your content will get more attention if you offer people multiple formats by which they can consume it.

Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning demonstrates this concept well:

#3: Emotional Narratives Are Remembered Best

As we turn to human psychology, we can find a few ideas that are useful in terms of content creation. First, remember that people tend to respond more strongly to stories and to find meaning in narrative. To the extent that your content is logically presented, sequential, easy to follow and includes emotional elements, your audience will pay more attention. Use stories in your marketing to make it more relevant and personal.

For example, when sharing content on social sites, include case studies and examples of how your concepts or ideas were applied successfully with good results. People remember narratives better than a series of facts.

#4: Familiarity Fosters Likeability

Another concept from human psychology comes from Swap (1977), who found that familiarity fosters likeability. The findings of this study suggest that the more exposure we have to someone, the more we are predisposed to like them, especially when we feel they are giving us value or rewards. For your content, this means you should syndicate your content widely and be out in front of your target audience every chance you get. As people see you “everywhere,” they start to pay more attention. And as they pay more attention, you become more familiar. And as you become more familiar, they like you more. We all are more inclined to do business with people we know and like.

#5: People Want Shortcuts

A third concept from human psychology that we can apply is the idea that people want shortcuts to help them make good decisions. As Barry Schwartz points out in his book, The Paradox of Choice, we all want lots of options—but, paradoxically, the more options we have, the less able we are to decide. This means, as a marketer, your content has to filter, not aggregate.

While people do appreciate resource lists, and you should use these in your marketing, it’s also important to include some suggestions and ideas for how people can benefit from these resource lists. Guide your visitors to make good decisions, filtered through your expertise. This is a powerful content—and persuasion—strategy.

#6: People Take Advice From People They Don’t Even Know

Turning now to group dynamics, let’s talk a bit about social decision-making and the value of social proof. Social decision-making is a term used to describe the idea that we are looking for ways to make good decisions without extraordinary effort. One way we do this is by asking questions of our social group. Sites like Yelp.com (and other review sites) tap into the wisdom of the crowds, to help you make a better decision about where to eat and where to shop.

A study completed in 2008 by Jupiter Research found that 50% of people consulted a blog before making a purchase. This means that we are basing our purchasing decisions on the wisdom of the group and can be influenced by people we have never met and hardly know. This growing focus on social decision-making has an important implication for you. You must position yourself as an expert resource for your clients. When you do this effectively, clients are more likely to trust, and act on, your recommendations. When your potential clients are ready to make a buying decision, you want them to think of you as the best solution.

#7: Engage, Captain!

As a content creator, it’s important to seek out comments and feedback from your audience, because not only do you connect with them more deeply, but you also start building your group of true supporters. These true supporters will look to you for guidance, information and assistance in making crucial decisions. As you gather more true supporters, your status grows. And, as your status grows, people are naturally more willing to listen to what you say and act on your suggestions.

So your content is powerful when it moves people to take action for personally positive results. Social proof is activated when others start talking about you, and sharing positive experiences with you. This naturally builds your credibility and visibility, and makes it more likely that people will pay attention to you and your content.

Putting it all Together

So as you focus on building content, keep in mind that it should:

• Be relevant, targeted, and usable
• Be offered in multiple formats
• Use stories and sequencing to appeal to emotions and logic
• Be consistently delivered
• Guide your visitors to make the best decisions for them
• Focus on building your true base of fans
• Move people to personally positive results

When you use these principles in your social media marketing, you’ll be benefiting from the convergence of neuroscience, human psychology and group dynamics, which will call attention to your content. And getting attention is the first step to making anything happen.

What about you? What powerful content creation strategies do you use? Let me know what you think in the box below.

Image sourced from http://www.piscatawayschools.org/1368205171844580/site/default.asp

The growth and usage of Twitter is not surprising. Compete.com estimates approximately 21 million unique monthly visitors, and a quick search on Twitter yields a variety of conversations from music, sports, politics, events and products.

For business however, there’s an art to using Twitter, and the most successful at it follow an unwritten set of rules. The following are 5 important tips to follow on Twitter; all lessons that I have learned while working for companies like HP, Yahoo! and Intel.

#1: Do Some Research

Research is fundamental. I suggest that marketers or small business owners spend a few weeks understanding what types of conversations are happening on Twitter and then formulate a communications plan before actually engaging. This will help drive consistency in the messages shared on Twitter.

#2: Determine Your Goals

Not all businesses use Twitter the same way. Some, like @ComcastCares, use Twitter merely for customer support. Dell uses Twitter to sell products or share company-related information. Often, I see smaller, more local businesses use it to build relationships with their constituencies to drive customer loyalty programs.

Whatever your goals are, it’s important to think about what you want to achieve with Twitter before spending your valuable time and resources on it.

#3: Specify Your Twitter Profile

There are many options you can use when creating a Twitter profile. You can create a company-branded account, a personal account or a hybrid account.

Branded account:

A branded account is simply where your Twitter name corresponds with the name of your company, and usually the avatar is your company logo.

Personal account:

A personal account is a little more human and unites your own personal brand with that of the company you work for or own.

Hybrid account:

A hybrid account usually takes different elements from both the branded and personal accounts.

Every business is different, so whichever option you choose, there has to be a level of balance. Branded profiles are great for certain content—for example, industry news, contests, investor relations, etc. Personal profiles are more beneficial if your organization wants to leverage the employee’s personal micro-community or wants to have a more human presence.

When I worked for Intel, I used two profiles to build community: my personal Twitter profile and one I created for Intel. I followed an 80/20 rule that seemed to work perfectly for the community that I engaged with.  On my personal account, 80% of what I shared was conversational (i.e., asking/answering questions, sharing industry-related news, etc.) and 20% was Intel-specific content. The branded account was the opposite—80% of the content shared was Intel-specific and 20% was personal.  This worked very well and click-through rates on links I shared were well above industry average.

#4: Build Social Equity

To be successful on Twitter, you have to build trust and credibility with your community. The end result is an increase in your social equity. That doesn’t always translate to the number of followers, tweets, or retweets you may have either. Rather, it’s more about developing a reputation as a trusted source of information or being seen as an expert in a particular subject.

You won’t succeed in building your equity by pushing out one way marketing messages about your business. Instead ask questions, be personal, and engage people naturally within the community. Otherwise, customers won’t listen to what you have to say and your equity may even decrease.

Buying Twitter followers is not recommended either. There are a lot of companies that will promise you thousands of followers for a very low price. The problem is that many of the followers will never read your content, click through to your links and they’re probably just bots spitting out a multitude of Bit.ly links. Besides, if it becomes public that you did purchase followers, you will be called out by the community and your reputation may be damaged.

It’s not worth buying followers just to increase your “perceived” equity and influence because that’s all it will be, perceived.

#5: Track, Measure and Iterate

Any small- or medium-sized business should invest in a paid tracking service like Radian6 or ScoutLabs to better track Twitter conversations, identify trends, measure sentiment and get a quantifiable snapshot of what’s going on in the social web.

If you want to measure sales, you can simply use a tracking code or coupon code specific for Twitter that will help measure conversions. If you want to measure how much money Twitter has saved your company, you can track how many issues you resolved, leads you gathered, and dollars you saved through Twitter engagement versus traditional channels. If your goal is to handle customer support issues via Twitter, it’s wise to check if there are any decreases in the call volume to your customer support center.

The great thing about using Twitter for your business is that it’s very easy to iterate your metrics and communications plan on the fly. It’s important, however, to remember that your plan should always map back to your goals and objectives so you don’t lose focus.

What Twitter tips would you add? Are you tracking your Twitter activity?  Got a question?  Please comment in the box below.

If you want to hang with the big players—a place where connections are made, leads are generated, and deals go down—then you need to spend more of your time on LinkedIn.

Although other sites have their purpose in the business world and many people utilize multiple social networking sites, LinkedIn is still the number-one place to market your business.  Here are ways to use LinkedIn and get results:

#1: Use LinkedIn Groups & Receive Tons of New Leads Daily

How would you feel if you had a sales funnel that brought in roughly 50 to 100 fresh, highly targeted leads every day? You’d feel pretty confident about putting food on the table next week, right?

Well, creating a LinkedIn group gives you the ability to generate an amazing number of leads from high-end decision makers.

Here are some great groups to closely examine:

• Sports Industry Network
• Inbound Marketers – For marketing professionals
• Social Media Marketing
• Tweeple
• On Startups – A community for entrepreneurs

Here’s how to maximize your LinkedIn group:

1. Add keywords in the description of your group to increase your search rankings on LinkedIn’s search section.
2. Add keywords in the title of the group to be found on Google.
3. Add your company website or blog to the group to drive traffic to your site.
4. Add your blog RSS feed to the group so every new article is automatically posted to the home page of every group member.
5. Send a weekly message that adds value for group members and drives traffic back to your site.
6. Connect people in the group by making introductions to those who could potentially do business with one another.

All of these points will help you generate more leads for your business.  If your sales funnel is set up correctly, you will have more than enough prospects to grow your business.

Make sure you create a group that fills a need for the audience you’re targeting in your business field. This will ensure that every person who joins the group is a qualified lead.

#2: Ask Questions & Build Your Credibility

I’ve asked a number of questions using LinkedIn Answers because it’s a great way to get the answers you need from some of the top experts in the world.

One question I’ve asked was, “How often are you answering questions for others on LinkedIn?” I received about 20 responses, but one answer stood out from the rest.

I had an individual share that he spent about an hour a week answering questions and he was getting three to five new clients a month bringing in roughly $3,000 to $5,000 extra in monthly revenue.  Not bad for answering a few questions, huh?

Here are some tips for answering questions:

First, set up the “Answers Application” on the bottom right-hand side of your home page for the subjects you know best.

This image shows a sampling of the categories you can monitor.

Then, when you see a question pop up that you know the answer to, follow these steps:

1. Research the person who asked the question, and find a way to tie in a personal response with something from their LinkedIn profile.
2. Be as helpful and resourceful as possible when answering the question.  Give tips, website links with additional information, or even recommend someone who is the best expert on that topic.
3. Leave the answer with an open invitation for more communication by asking them to contact you privately if they need any extra help.

All of these tips will help you gain the most out of answering questions, and will help you build powerful relationships that will grow your business.

#3: Create Powerful Events

Hosting an event is a great way to build your business (see events under the ‘More…’ news in the LinkedIn navigation bar).  LinkedIn has an events platform that allows you to target thousands of professionals for free.

I threw close to 20 events around the country last year and I used LinkedIn to promote them, getting approximately 500 paying attendees per event.

Due to the viral nature of LinkedIn, once someone RSVPs to your event, it shows up on the home profile of everyone that person is connected to, spreading the message for you.

Creating an event on LinkedIn is simple.  Answer a few questions and start promoting your event.  Send an invitation to the people who would be interested in the event based on region or niche. You will notice a wealth of opportunities from hosting your own event.

This image shows what the events page looks like in LinkedIn.

#4: Run an Advanced Search in Your Target Market

It’s so easy to generate leads from LinkedIn.  The advanced search function helps you get in touch with the exact people you’re going after.

Simply click on “advanced” on the top right side of your home page next to the search box.  This will take you to a clean page where you can input anything you need to find the exact lead you are seeking.  You can search by industry, keywords, company and title, to mention a few.

LinkedIn Advanced Search

#5:  Send Personal Messages

Once you find leads, you want to send them personalized messages.  The best way to drop any walls—and give yourself the best chance of making a sale—is to connect with someone on as many personal levels as possible. Look at their profile, find out which companies they’ve worked for in the past, which school they attended, what groups they’re in, listed hobbies and who your mutual connections are.  Then, write a personal message like this one:

Hi Tom,

I noticed that we’re both connected to Mary, Jeff and Bob; we both played basketball back in college; and we’re both in Toastmasters International speaking club.

I would love to connect with you to learn more about your experiences at Xyz Company. I believe there are a number of ways we could help one another.  Would you be free for a brief chat in the near future?

Looking forward to connecting soon and I’ll be sure to tell Mary I contacted you. I’m sure she would love to know I reached out to say ‘hi.’

Thanks,
Lewis

Personal messages seal the deal and give you a greater chance of future opportunities.

Now Go Grow Your Business With LinkedIn!

If you follow these tips, you’ll begin to understand why LinkedIn is the best social networking site for building your business. There are number of ways to attract leads, connect with powerful decision makers and market your business. LinkedIn’s niche-specific filters and search features can help you reach the right people in your field.

Make a point of staying active on LinkedIn. Continue to update your profile and add new contacts. The more you put into it, the more the entire network will work for you.

Are you using LinkedIn? How is it working for you? I look forward to hearing what success stories your LinkedIn network brings you. Share your comments below.

A well-designed business blog:

1. Uses visual interest to make posts easy to read
2. Brands your business in a consistent way
3. Places useful information in places where it is easy to find
4. Isn’t cluttered with things that aren’t helping you promote your business
5. Makes it easy for readers to do what you want them to do

Good blog design is practical

While there are many elements that go into designing a blog that grabs attention and engages readers, here are seven elements that must be integrated at the outset. You can develop the visual look and feel over time, but start here to begin building relationships, trust and credibility:

1. Graphic header with name of blog, tag line and author name
2. Email subscribe form
3. About page with photo
4. Use a variety of media: text, video, audio
5. Plenty of white space to make it easy to read
6. Links to share your content
7. Links for readers to connect on your social networking sites

To illustrate each of these points, I’ve made a short video showing blogs that incorporate these elements.

If you would like to study these blogs in more depth, here are the links:

• ChrisG.com
• Mari Smith’s blog
• Nuts About Southwest
• Build a Better Blog
• Altitude Branding
• Comcast Voices
• The Social Media Marketing Blog
• Wine Library TV
• Social Media Marketing Strategies
• The Social Media Handyman
• Copyblogger
• JimKukral.com
• Street Smarts Marketing

What are the essential design elements you think belong in a business blog? Please share your ideas in the comments and link to blogs that illustrate best practices.

However, just because anyone can set up a blog, doesn’t mean everyone should, and many professionals and businesses start blogging without giving any thought to why, how and who will be doing the blogging.

Over 50 percent of blogs are abandoned within the first 90 days. While this isn’t really important if you’re writing a personal diary, political or celebrity blog, it is very important if you start a blog for your business and don’t keep posting on it consistently and with purpose.

When a prospect lands on a blog that hasn’t been updated in months, it’s akin to walking into a vacant store with busted windows and dust blowing in. It’s just not pretty; and it doesn’t look good for you, your business reputation and your branding.

Don’t let that happen to you. Start right, start smart and follow a few suggested guidelines. First, let’s review some basics:

What Is a Business Blog?

Because a blog is an inexpensive, fast way to build an online presence, it is an ideal way for business entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors and other professionals to establish their credibility and expertise.  Since your readers can post comments, you create a conversation with your audience and build rapport and trust as a result.

The very nature of a blog is perfect for the busy professional.  They are quick and easy to update.  You are creating fresh content frequently (two to three times a week is recommended minimum) that is useful to your prospects and customers and loved by search engines.  In contrast to “traditional” static website, a blog is a dynamic site that encourages your visitors to interact with you through commenting so they can get to know you better.

When you create a conversation with your audience (visitors, readers, prospects), you are establishing your credibility.  You build your network and increase the visibility of your products and services in a casual way.

A blog is an essential tool in the professional’s marketing toolbox.  Combined with a website, an ezine, database management and ecommerce system, you will have everything you need to develop and run your business globally and online.

Copyblogger.com makes it easy to find articles about the core message and there are several ways to generate leads and build a list.

Do your research. Alltop.com compiles the best blogs on hundreds of topics so you can check out your competition.

10 Steps for Starting Your Blog

Before you get to the nitty-gritty of setting up your blog, there is some pre-work to do. This will ensure you start right and put your best foot forward

1. Before you do anything else, examine the reasons why you want to publish a blog. What is the purpose for the blog? How does the blog’s purpose relate to your business purpose?

2. What are the business objectives or outcomes you want from your business blog? Some people use a blog as a lead generator to build their database. Some are looking to build a visibility platform, while others use the blog to develop content for other purposes like books, articles and programs. What do you want to get out of your blog?

3. Who is your ideal reader? Who are you writing to/for? For most businesses I’ve worked with, the ideal reader is similar to their ideal client. It’s important to know your audience so you can meet their needs and address their concerns, challenges and what they’re looking for to improve their lives.

4. How do you want your readers to feel when they read your blog? This may seem like a weird question, yet it will help you tap into the emotions of your audience. Do you want your reader to be inspired, motivated, and moved to action? Again, tapping into this will help you focus your content on serving your reader.

5. What do you want your readers to DO when they read your blog? This relates to the goals you set for your blog. If your blog is a lead generator, then you must have very clear steps for guiding your reader to subscribe to get blog updates and/or get your lead generating content.

6. How much time do you have to devote to your blog each week? This is getting to the heart of blogging. If you can’t commit to writing a lot of valuable content, then you’re doing yourself and your readers a disservice. Be honest. The most effective and successful blogs are those with fresh, new content posted at least two to three times per week. Is that reasonable for you to manage? Will you have a team of bloggers? Remember, there are many, many ways to create content. It doesn’t have to be all you all the time.

7. What’s your blog’s core message? This relates to the topic of your blog and the niche you are focused on. What do you want your readers to learn? Why should anyone read your blog, and more importantly why should they subscribe to and follow your blog? This is another key piece to get in place before you start your blog. Brian Clark, publisher of Copyblogger.com, recommends creating “cornerstone content.” This is a series of posts that articulates your core message and provides new readers with an introduction and overview of what they can expect to learn from you.

8. Create an editorial calendar. It’s no secret that content rules on a blog, so it’s helpful to have a content plan going into the game. A key element of a good blog is having a list of 7-10 keyword-rich categories. Once you determine the categories (or subtopics) of your blog, you can plan your content calendar. If you plan on posting three times per week, then plot out post ideas for each of your categories. Make a list of 5 topics for each category. Then, fill in your calendar. Five topics times ten categories and you’ve got 50 blog posts in the pipeline.

9. Do your homework. Critical to your blog’s success is knowing your competition. Who is already blogging in your niche? What are they writing about? If blogs in your niche are scarce, this may be a great opportunity to dominate the search engines with your own content. Finding great blogs will take a bit of time and research. Start at Technorati.com and search for blogs using your keywords. Next use Alltop.com and Blogs.com to find the best of the best.

10. Build your blog. Now that the research is done, you know your message and have content ready to go, it’s time to get down to business and build the blog. This is where the fun part starts and cannot be easily covered in a bullet point. Two things to think about: 1) Are you a do-it-yourselfer or will someone build the blog for you? and 2) Are you a techie or not? There are many blogging platforms each with pros and cons. If you’re a techie, you may prefer WordPress.org. If you’re not comfortable with tech stuff, then TypePad may be a better option for you.

As you can see, there’s more to business blogging than initially meets the eye. The more preparation and thought you put into your blog BEFORE you start, the more successful it will be. Once the prep work is done and the blog is built, you’ll have a powerful marketing tool for creating a highly visible web presence and attracting the right people to your business.

What else would you add to this list to prep your blog for success? Share your best blogging tips in the comments below.