Courtesy of brandvaluenow.com

#1: Reach your Audience

Engagement is all about connecting with your specific audience. If data tells you that most of your audience has children, then refer to that fact often to appeal to them emotionally.

#2: Leave Out The Boring Bits

A good writer leaves out the boring parts for a reason – no-one wants to read them. Only write about the exciting, the best, and the most inspirational to get your audience hooked.

#3: Have a Unique Voice

People don’t connect with bots, or bland personalities. They connect with real, dynamic people who share their concerns and problems.

#4: The Time Factor

Write for your audience as if they’re late for a meeting and only want to hear the crucial, entertaining, funny bits of the post. They scan your articles most often.

#5: Write What You Love Reading About

Passion comes across in writing, and yours needs to be in the right place. Share your passion with your community to wholly connect with them.

#6: The Headline Battle

In my experience 70% of the struggle is the headline. If you can create an excellent headline, you’re nearly there. So make yours
attract readers.

Courtesy of networksolutions.com

#7: Be Descriptive

Use descriptive terms, and describe things in easy and interesting ways so that people can understand them better. Leave out all of the ‘old hat’ clichés.

#8: Use The Right Tone

Tone can either draw in a reader, or keep them at arm’s length. Examine how you use tone, and work on it. Then lure them in with some quality tone!

#9: Be Real

It’s good to be your brand, but it’s also equally as important to be yourself. People want to know who you are, and why they should read you.

#10: Tell Stories

Perhaps the greatest of these social engagement steps is – tell stories. Relevance always helps people connect, so when you tell a relevant story involving a lesson that your reader needs to learn, they love it. These stories can be found everywhere, on the most successful blogs and social sites.

Add in a little anecdote mid blog-post to enhance your point, or use a story to outline why your reader is better off doing something completely different. Whatever you decide to do, always use stories to do it. That’s the mark of an emotive, logical writer.

Finally, and something of a bonus step – be transparent. People can spot fakery a mile away, and they don’t appreciate it. Be sincere, honest and friendly, and it will shine through in your writing!

Do you have a method of touching people’s hearts and minds with copy? How do you engage them? Let me know, here.

Courtesy of gizmodo.co.uk

[Troll] – Defined, a troll is someone who deliberately posts a provocative or offensive message in a group, forum, comment section or on a message board – with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

How To Spot a Troll

It can be tough trying to identify a troll, especially when you could be horribly wrong and end up offending one of your long term readers, who has disagreed with you about something. Here’s how I spot trolls on our social media pages.

• They come out of no-where, i.e. they’ve never commented rationally before
• Sweeping statements that would outrage many people
• A complete disregard for the topic, attempts to derail rational conversation
• Absolutely no sense of humor, like they’re born combatant
• There is no or little personal information about them, i.e. no image or real name
• They use attention-seeking tricks, like making blatant claims, and huge lies
• Often poor grammar, as they could be children
• Sometimes seem plausible, but don’t stop causing arguments or trouble

Courtesy of pointsincase.com

How To Deal With These Foul Trolls

In my experience the absolute WORST thing you can do is respond to them, or fuel their argument. Trolls exist because they get a kick out of causing trouble and getting lots and lots of attention out of it. If I see an obvious troll on my blog, I delete their posts. They like nothing more than to enrage our community and cause trouble.

Step 1 is to remove their social posts if you can. If you can’t, then don’t respond to them at all. If you find other people are suddenly responding to their posts, kindly ask them not to in either private messaging or directly on the post. Try not to call them a ‘troll’ but if it comes down to it, at least your community will understand why you’re not talking to them.

Courtesy of programming4.us

Finally, if the conversation continues, accept the idea that the troll could be controlling both sides of the conversation. It’s not hard to do, and it’s a tactic I’ve seen done many times to draw other people into the conversation. Report them and ignore it. Hide, delete, remove or bury the message.

If you must, and I mean absolutely MUST respond, because they’ve insulted your fans or done something equally as awful – keep emotion out of it. A standard – please stop posting here, your IP has been reported’ will be fine.

I once had a troll that would not go away. Eventually I traced him back to his own blog! Trolls you see, love to cause trouble anonymously. If you know who they are, they will back off, as mine did when I emailed him on his blog!

Have you ever had a troll bother you on your social pages? What did they say and how did you deal with it? I’d like to know!

Courtesy of epodcastnetwork.com

#1: Infallible Facebook

No surprises here – in my opinion, Facebook is still the most lucrative and savvy way to socially promote your business online. Add that fact to their recent 1 billion user tally, and their almost OCD-like need to update and evolve, and you have a pretty stable investment launching a decent Facebook business page.

#2: Pinterest Power

Pinterest is my number 2, because it’s the most recent and most revolutionary trend in media-based sharing online. The traffic (and growing sales) doesn’t lie.

#3: Youtube or Bust

Coming in third we have ever popular Youtube. Why? Because monetizing viral video has matured to the point where you can become a millionaire, if you have a hit video here. Say what you like about Google, but Youtube has an incredible ad platform.

Courtesy of realestategab.com

#4: LinkedIn Matters

LinkedIn has made some impressive changes of late, and more are to come. For the small business, it can be a powerful networking tool.

#5: What Did You Tweet?

Twitter comes in at a sulky number 5. It’s not that it’s a lesser social platform, but it terms of financial and traffic conversion – it just not as useful to a small business. That said, it should still be part of your social strategy.

#6: The Return of MySpace

I’m so excited about this revamp, I almost put MySpace at number 1. It has a lot of proving itself to do, but it’s already making a comeback. Ebiz recently reported it as the 4th most popular social networking site, ahead of Google+. If you’re in the media, use it.

#7: Google+ Traffic

If you have an e-commerce site, then Google+ is a must-have purely for its new business functions and SEO potential. Otherwise it’s horrible as a social network.

#8: Hello Yelp

Yelp, if you don’t know, is the huge online review directory for all things product or business based. It adds a lot of weight to SEO practices and social proof, which is why it comes in at eight.

#9: Digg a Little Deeper

Digg splashes onto our list at number 9, for being the most used (and most fun) social bookmarking site. If you’re not sharing here, get to it.

Courtesy of pikomal.com

#10: DeviantArt Anyone?

DeviantArt is a social networking site for all of the creatives online. It has serious merit for small businesses as you can find all sorts of great branding stuff here, not to mention superb artistry.

There you have it! Our top 10 list of social media sites according to how valuable they are to small businesses.

Do you agree with this list, or are there some placements you would change? Tell us where and why!

Courtesy of seogeekster.com

#1: Engage With Them on Twitter

Say hello, and contribute to their set conversation. Comment repeatedly for a week or two and really make friends with them. THEN ask to guest post for them.

#2: Direct Post Contribution

Instead of asking to contribute a post, just send the whole darn thing. If they’re interested, they’ll read the post and accept it. Make sure it’s not published anywhere else!

#3: Become a Big Facebook Fan

Bloggers track their fans interactions, so when you start sharing and caring about their brand – they notice you. Impress them with your ability to give, and they will hear you out.

#4: Join Their LinkedIn Group

If you can join their LinkedIn group – great! Spend some time answering expert queries and making a name for yourself there. Strike up a friendship with their group members first.

#5: Include a Link From Their Blog on Yours

Bloggers track their links like crazy. If you embed a link from one of their posts on yours, they’ll usually follow this to find out where it came from. Do this a few times.

#6: Get Your Name Out There

If you don’t have a blog of your own, then become a ‘bloggers best friend’ by being a voracious commenter. Always have something great to say on their blog pages.

#7: Participate in Live Conversations

If your blogger is hosting a real time Twitter Q&A, or perhaps a live webinar, or Google Hangouts sessions, get in on it. Meet them in real time and leave an impression.

#8: Become Friends With Their Friends

If you can’t get hold of a particular blogger, become friends with people they are friends with. Then try to secure a proper introduction through these channels.

#9: Give Them Lovely Compliments

Don’t be insincere, but read up about what they’ve done and compliment them on something. I once connected with a blogger by leaving a compliment on his amazon.com book page.

Courtesy of kateevangalistarandr.blogspot.com

#10: Throw Money at Them

If you’ve tried all of these methods, and they’ve still chosen to ignore you – then throw money at them. You can do this by buying their books, ebooks or hiring them to do some paid work for you. At the very least it will get you that introduction. Then you can strike up a working relationship. Most of the time, this won’t happen though.

Bloggers are naturally social online, so they will respond to these prompts. Just remember that you need to give them a reason to respond. How do they know you? Who are you? A good response is, ‘oh yes, he’s that guy that always shares my Facebook posts.’

Can you think of another creative way to connect with a top blogger? I’d love to hear about it here!

Courtesy of conmedisys.com

The Costco Policy

The statement in question published and made ‘the rules’ by Costco stated:

“Be aware that statements posted electronically (such as to online message boards or discussion groups) that damage the company, defame any individual or damage any person’s reputation or violate the policies outlined in the Costco Employee Agreement, may be subject to discipline, up to and including termination of employment.”

What’s wrong with this? It’s too BROAD. Strip away the general legal language and you have a multinational corporation, publicly proclaiming that they can fire anyone for anything an employee posts or comments online.

If they don’t like it – you’re fired. That was the real issue that the NLRB had with Costco’s policy. We’re running into some basic social media policy mistakes here. First of all, why did Costco create such a ridiculous policy that infringed on the legal rights of its employees?

Because like so many other companies – social media policy isn’t seen to be THAT important. Just get Margaret in accounting to mock up some random nonsense that she found online, let’s not get the legal team involved.

Courtesy of fiercecio.com

Social Media Policy Is Law

A policy by definition is an important document. It comes with its own set of rules that can legally be enforced by the imposing company. Costco’s first mistake was thinking that such outlandish, broad and frankly – insulting – statements could be made on an official policy document for the corporation.

The ruling that this and other clauses in Costco’s social media policy, has many other companies taking a hard look at their own ‘cobbled together’ policies. EchoStar was similarly penalized after the Costco ruling became precedent.

It would be unwise to think that other brands will get away with general statements in their social media policies. That means you, other brand!

Courtesy of radian6.com

Flipping Through Your Social Media Policy: The Fixes

So, what did we learn today thanks to our friends over at EchoStar and Costco?

• Your social media policy needs to be specific – very specific. The courts say you can’t make sweeping statements about damaging a company’s reputation online. I assume this goes for individuals as well.

• Social media has grown to be a marketing tool. While many brands are still getting used to the idea that social media exists, we know that it’s the MOST EFFECTIVE form of marketing, and will be for the next 20 years.

• You can’t restrict the free speech of an employee, threatening to fire them if they say the wrong thing in a tweet or blog comment. What you should be doing is outlining what they can say, so that they use social media in your favor.

• You need to have a strong, legally binding, well thought out social media policy. The law is already involved. To cover yourself, and your employees – make yours count. They’ll be using Facebook with or without your permission.

• You can’t fire an employee for saying something genuinely outrageous online about your company, if it’s not outlined in your social media policy. The really nasty employees that deserve to be fired will get away with murder, and it will be your own fault!

The moral of the story is – have a good social media policy. Respect your employees, and the gigantic mouthpieces they can be when set lose online!

Do you agree with the court’s ruling? Give us your opinion on the Costco policy debacle!

Courtesy of twitter.com

The Tweet That Sparked The BOB War

It was a day like any other, one that Nabisco brand Oreo’s, would soon remember as the day a single tweet sparked a brand war. The tweet in question was basic – almost mundane, except that it made one fundamental mistake. Can you see it?

“Ever bring your own Oreo cookies to the movie theater? #slicksnacker” – @Oreo

At first glance, this has the makings of a decent tweet – it invites fans to tell personal stories about their experiences with Oreos. Of course, it also flies in the face of theatres that don’t allow people to bring outside food into their cinemas.

In case you overlooked the #slicksnacker hashtag, the tag irrevocably says that Oreo supports breaking theatre rules. Who cares right, as long as people are eating cookies!

There’s a reason they don’t allow customers to bring food from home – they lose revenue at their own food stands, and as we all know – since pirate downloading became so popular, cinemas need every bit of income they can get to survive.

The Response That Sparked The Public Comments

The response came from AMC Theatres, a bulky 136,000 strong vs. Oreo’s own 53,000 Twitter fans. It was as they say in Twitterland, a ‘social media smack down.’ These smack downs are happening increasingly, as brand ideals and ideas cross paths.

Shane Adams, the man behind the “NOT COOL, COOKIE” tweet, was rightfully insulted by Oreos flagrant lack of consideration for other businesses. Surely at this point, the cookie brand would apologize, like any decent brand would.

Courtesy of twitter.com

Instead Oreo replied: “Fair enough, @AMCTheatres, but don’t hate the player, hate the game”

Tacky, and worse – Oreo thought a bit of slang could excuse the way they carelessly published poor advice, on an ignorant hashtag. You don’t expect that from a large brand online, not at this stage in social media. Fail! AMC only had one thing to say – GAME ON!

SMM’s Take on Responses and Oreos Fail Reply

The #slicksnacker hashtag became a place for Oreo fans, AMC Theatre fans and everyone else to snicker at Oreos idiocy, and applaud the way the theatre company stood up for itself.

Fan replies ranged from ‘looool,’ ‘best tweet ever,’ and ‘stealing Oreos hashtag’ to ‘I now have a new found affection for Oreo cookies, concession prices are outrageous.’

Courtesy of v3im.com

Clearly, the public sentiment split both ways – some people supported Oreos and others the theatre chain. Ethically, Oreos was wrong. And that is the end of that. No amount of snarky replies could polish the dent that Oreos has made to itself online.

Other companies will be watching to see if Oreos self-motivated Twitter strategy will end up posing a threat to their business next.

Which side do you support – Oreos or AMCTheatres? Tell us why and contribute to the brand on brand debate!

Courtesy of activ8social.com

1: The Hunger Games

Continuing with its overnight fame from the books, the Hunger Games movie launched a thorough social marketing plan that worked. They funneled fans from Facebook and Twitter to a website where they could register as a citizen of the make believe-world. You’d also be able to share your profile images across your social sites, and interact with other fans.

#2: Monsters vs. Aliens

This Dreamworks hit offered fans a chance to win tickets through a Facebook app. You could also use this app to buy tickets for yourself and your family. Facebook was the central arena for Dreamwork’s campaign, which turned out to be a resounding success.

#3: Paranormal Activity

Potentially the most loved and most successful horror movie of 2007, was created for a measly $15 million and made over $150 million dollars at the box office. This was all thanks to the Facebook page that fueled word of mouth hype.

#4: Alice in Wonderland

Disney launched a viral Twitter and Facebook campaign that allowed fans to become loyal subjects of the red queen, the white queen, or a disloyal subject of the mad hatter. The largest army of followers would then receive access to an exclusive trailer, that no-one else could see. It was an instant viral hit. Even today the Facebook page has 10 million fans.

#5: Hot Tub Time Machine

This comedy used Facebook and ‘Eventful’ a screening app, to request screenings in their area. Get enough people to sign on, and it creates awareness. It also automatically makes screening the film in a particular area worthwhile.

#6: Toy Story 3

Pixar and Disney focused on creating a lot of viral video commercials with ‘Lots o’ Huggin Bear’ a key character in the movie. People loved these ads and shared them all over the place, creating a lot of viral buzz on sites like Youtube, MySpace and Facebook.

#7: Inception

Warner Brothers cottoned onto the whole viral marketing game, and flooded the internet with viral-social campaigns. One of these was to use a location based service like Foursquare to promote the movie, only the service they used was called SCVNGR.

#8: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2

This movie caused a 29 million strong Facebook page following, with 100,000 new users a day leading up to the release. Behind the scenes clips and images, along with interviews were the cause of this boom. At the launch, Twitter received live pics from the premier, from the HP team using the Twitpic app. Youtube received an exclusive live stream of the event.

#9: TRON: Legacy

One of the largest campaigns online can be attributed to Disney’s TRON film. Already a cult classic, fans flocked to find out more about the new movie. Twitter was the main site used as the repository for all viral TRON info. It worked like a charm.

#10: Twilight Movies

You can’t mention movies on social media without Twilight. It was the first movie ever to reach 1 million followers on Twitter. The Twitter page focused on everything Twilight, press releases, blogs, pictures, exclusive news, video clips and fan comments.

Do you know of a movie that has enjoyed success from social media? Tell us about it below.

Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

The Old and The New MySpace

The old MySpace was big in the early days of social media, and then flunked out when the larger, more advanced sites like Facebook and Twitter rose to take its place in the later 2000’s. The overall consensus was that MySpace couldn’t adapt to change. It became stagnant and then fell under the crushing burden of being an out-dated social site.

After that, it took some wrong turns, essentially making things worse for itself online. It went from being a social network, to being a music social network, to being a music site with social network features, to being an advertising site with music and social features.

I don’t need to tell you how many people fled the MySpace sinking ship.

It was eventually sold to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for a paltry $35 million dollars. That’s an astounding $545 million dollars less than what it was bought for a few years earlier!

MySpace rose to power in 2004, and attracted more than 75 million visitors at its peak in 2008. There’s no doubt – it was the first big thing in social media, aside from Friendster. But Facebook and its kin, killed the MySpace star.

Now, the strange media-celeb partnership will result in a new MySpace. What can we expect?

Courtesy of geeksugar.com

Justin MySpace

• You can expect to get started on the new Myspace (with the URL new.myspace.com!) by logging in with your Facebook or Twitter account.
• Upload a nice size image (up to 5mb), state your location and tell the world a bit about yourself (the famous subject line notorious on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook)
• Import your friends from Facebook and Twitter into MySpace.
• Bring your ‘stuff’ over from these sites, like your video and image albums.
• MySpace has more of a Pinterest-style layout now. It’s very customizable and focuses on music, video and media. It looks great!
• Innovative new ‘floating’ profile box on the left of the screen. Contains your profile, latest, mixes, connections, shop, events and music catalog.
• New trend in using ALL of the screen for image enhancement – another great innovation and well spotted by Specific Media.
• Top fans list and analytics for your music.
• Twitter-like updates for communication.

After reviewing their upcoming launch video, I have to say – I’m impressed. Before, the old MySpace was a crowded beach of old
code, poor design and tacky advertising. This new design is listening to what the people want.

They want media-focused design – they want ‘update’ features, and easier ways of sharing content in 2 seconds or less. Best of all, the people they had work on the new MySpace clearly have a firm grasp on modern social networking.

I feel strange about saying this, but I’d sooner use the new MySpace over Google+. They’ve scaled it up, toned it down and placed the right emphasis in the right places. I didn’t see any blatant advertising hanging around (yay!). I honestly think that Justin Timberlake and Specific Media have put the sexy back in MySpace.

We’ll see how the public reacts when it’s re-launched. All you music, film and media buffs however, would be wise to join. I predict MySpace will be to media, what LinkedIn is to business, and Pinterest is to images.

Check out the upcoming launch video here.

What do you like about the new MySpace? Share your insights with us below!

Courtesy of idiva.com

The Basic Social Infrastructure

Online shops have been using social media for a while, but only recently have they discovered the sheer traffic and sales potential of these platforms. Here are the must-have social buttons on your e-commerce site.

• Facebook buttons, like, share, comment
• Pinterest buttons, and each of your product images should be on Pinterest
• Twitter buttons
• Blog links

Recent stats prove that for small online shops Facebook can be a significant earner. A viral Facebook group can drive as much as 25% of the overall monthly traffic to a fairly automatic (unattended) online shop.

The potential of Pinterest is evident – take photos of your products in a social context, and see how responsive a built in audience can be. Pinterest users love to see your products in action, in how-to’s, reviews and tips images.

Twitter is a superb platform for announcing your latest sales and exclusive offers. Using tracked links to see who clicks on these specials, and figure out how you can make more people interested in your sales.

Your blog is a great place to create reviews, articles and information pieces on your products, or on topics surrounding your products. This is excellent for improving your SEO potential, which will attract more traffic to your sales website.

Using Social Apps To Enhance Your Online Shop

Forward thinking online shops are getting more involved with adding app functionality to their pages. These apps improve sales, and add specialized features to your pages that your customers appreciate. The group gifts app for example, allows your friends to buy a product at your store, by inviting a few of their friends to chip in on the price.

Through Facebook and Twitter, their social connections can login to the app on your page, and contribute money to purchase one of your products for a friend or for themselves. You’ll find interesting and enhancing apps like these all over the place.

Another app may allow users to check out third party reviews of your product, or will let them see your product close up, using a zoom plugin.

5 Must-Have Social Promotions

• Do stalk your competitors social pages to see what they’re up to
• Do promote your online shop on your core social pages: FB, Twitter, Pinterest
• Do give your social media members lots of free gifts and discounts
• Do add as much social proof to your online shop as possible
• Do gather every single customer’s email address for continued marketing

It’s easy to think of social media as an ‘extra’ for your online shop. The truth is, that with trends going the way they are – the shops that focus on social media, will get the lion’s share of sales. People want to buy from people, and know that others in their social networks have bought from you as well!

This is the secret of building a quality online shop! Do you know how to make your online shop more social? Add your tip below!

Courtesy of techcrunch.com

The LinkedIn Homepage Revamp

The most obvious change to come in recent days, has been the homepage design revamp, replacing the uncomfortable stark whiteness that made LinkedIn famous – with a black header and a more symmetrical layout. Better yet the functionality has been updated as well, and the site actually loads faster.

Overall LinkedIn has adopted a more modern look, following in the footsteps of Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Gone are the older ‘open white space’ methodologies, and instead the site has embraced the traditional web 2.0 use of geometric shapes to make sense of the online space. It works, it really does.

The homepage reads like a personal business update – at the top is the news that LinkedIn recommends for you, and then comes the list of interactions and connections that your business network is making. The right hand column has morphed into a wonderfully handy set of tools. From ‘people you may know’ to ads, profile view stats, group suggestions and other plugins that you’ve added to your profile.

What To Do: Update your status daily to stay in your network feed. You can comment in groups, make new connections or answer LinkedIn questions. Whatever interaction you achieve will be published on your network’s news board.

LinkedIn has finally moved towards a more personal look and feel, with greater customizations and clear focus on interaction. It’s seems like they’ve sat back, eagerly watching the other networks and what they’ve done – and have implemented lessons based on that. The only thing to say is that it all works, very well. It’s an instant improvement.

Things You Should Be Changing

With a redesign, comes new features and enhancements. With the LinkedIn changes a few things are now more obvious. Your profile image for example, is larger and more emphasized. LinkedIn says that a great profile photo will get you clicked on 7X more than if you had no profile image at all.

Your descriptive tagline that explains who you are is also more prominent, so think of something really good to place here. The revamp brings new SEO opportunities. Perhaps it’s time you removed that old summary and replaced it with something more dynamic.

Spend time making your LinkedIn profile engaging and worth reading. It is still one of the most important pieces of information about you online. Your clients, friends, family, employees and colleagues will see your LinkedIn profile often.

If you don’t yet have any recommendations make a point of getting at least two. They enhance your page and will help you complete your profile. LinkedIn says more changes will be coming very soon – and we can’t wait! If they’re as good as this redesign, we’re in for a treat!

What do you think about the new LinkedIn changes? Do you like them or hate them – why? We want to know!