I often get asked “How can I get more viral Facebook Shares?”. Everyone wants an image or post to go crazy, do the rounds on Facebook, get Pinned to Pinterest, and shared on other blogs, right?  

In this post, I share 3 examples of posts that have fared really well or gone “viral” on Facebook for my clients and subscribers.  I am also going to reveal why focusing on “going viral” is just not smart – and why you need to ask another question other than “How can I get more Viral Facebook Shares?”.  If you get that part right first, the results might surprise you!

A post going viral is definitely a good thing.  Don’t get me wrong.  More shares equate to more reach and more eyes on your content, potentially more fans, and Facebook is then more likely to send your content out into the newsfeed of your fans more often.  It’s a whole Edgerank/algorithm thing, and I won’t go into it here. Most of you know that the more likes, comments, shares you get, the more likely your content is going to be seen by your fans/likers in future.

What I do want to look at is how you can ensure that your content gets noticed in the first place, liked, commented on, and shared by your fans. And the first place to start is not by thinking “Let’s make a viral post”.

It’s about having a message that resonates with your community.  It’s about asking:   

• How Can I add Value to my Readers?
• How can I solve their problems?
• How can I answer their questions?
• How can I inspire them?
• How can I stir strong emotion?
• How can I challenge them?
• How can I help them to do something?

If you ask these questions (rather than “How can I make my post go viral?”) then you are more likely to get your content seen (and shared).

So, let’s take a look at some examples from some of my clients/subscribers and why each post was so successful.  In all 3 examples, they have used my image strategies on Facebook to get GREAT results:

1  The Challenge 

The first example was shared with me by one of my subscribers, Peter from The Classroom Professor.  His site has a great mission:  to inspire primary and elementary students to LOVE mathematics.  The Classroom Professor produces quality worksheets and software to support K-6 Teachers of Mathematics.

Peter started adopting some of my simple strategies for using images on his Facebook Page. He started to replace his text/number-based posts with images that showcased some challenging math problems. The results were astounding:

13,633 Comments and going strong…

Peter sent me a message about how by using some of my simple image strategies, he had been able to achieve thousands of likes, shares and comments on his posts:

“I stumbled across your email list about a month ago, and read your ideas for encouraging your followers to share posts by posting engaging graphics. Two weeks ago, I decided to give it a try with my maths teacher followers. I created a couple of graphics posing maths questions that were a little tricky, and sent one out to see how it would go. Wow! I had a sudden spike in likes, people talking about my site, sharing the post, the whole bit. The post went viral, and currently has had over 3000 comments.”

Well, as you can see, the post has now zoomed past 3,000 comments (to over 13,000) and is going strong.

Why did this post do so well?

Peter didn’t create the post to make it go “viral” – he posted it to challenge his community – a community that he knew would appreciate a thought-provoking math problem.  The success of the post was not about intending to make it viral but rather thinking about what would inspire or challenge his readers/likers.

Here another post he was referring to in his message:

6,829 comments & countless likes and shares ain’t too shabby!

By presenting the math problem in an image format, he was able to catch the attention of fans and also provide the information so that it was easily digested.  Also, the simple act of asking a question encouraged his fans to answer it – which resulted in more comments and more engagement on the page.

2  The Message

In this second example, I worked with my client Know Your Midwife to create a simple but powerful message for International Midwives’ Day.  The purpose? None other than to share the message about birth being inherently safe, and celebrating the importance of midwives for birthing mothers.  There was no intention to create a “viral sensation”, but the end result was the image being shared almost 1500 times.  Not bad for a smaller page with less than 1000 fans at the time:

When the message is important, your community will share it.

This message was not only celebratory but also emotional.  Women who had been touched by the skills and support of a midwife were empowered to share the message.  If your image can elicit emotion, you are more likely to entice people to take action.

There are also other benefits to “Shares” on Facebook – not only is the personal sharing exposing your content to all of their friends and followers, but then those friends and followers are encouraged to do the same.  A post can get shared exponentially very quickly with the right message.

This message was shared in Australia during International Midwives’ Day and then spread to the US for their Day, increasing the life of the post over two days as it travelled around to different countries.

That’s the power of sharing a message and not a “viral” post.  The side benefit for this growing Facebook community was that by having so many people engage with the content, Facebook will now more readily send future content out into the newsfeed of fans.  And in this case, dozens of new likers were also drawn to the page.

3  The Heartwarming Story

The third example I have is from my gorgeous friend and client Monique, who owns a fabulous Ground Raw Organic Cafe in our local area on the Sunshine Coast.   Not only am I super impressed with the food, smoothies and raw, organic treats at Ground, but they consistently provide great content, tips, information, humour, fun and all sorts of great posts about food, life and living on social media. Their mantra:

We are here to inspire, educate, motivate and support you on your journey of everlasting health and wellness.

Monique has really taken some of my visual marketing and image strategies and put them on rocket fuel to get some major reach and engagement on her page (you can check it out here).  But it was this post that got some of their best engagement yet:

By showcasing a heartwarming story from the main street of our town, people were inspired to share, because it stirred emotions.

It was not Ground’s intention to create a viral post – again, their intention on Facebook is to share heartwarming stories, inspiring posts and foodie goodness. When you focus on the message first, and the message is important to your audience, it gets shared.

You don’t decide, your audience does

A post going viral is not really due to anything you “do” to it. In fact, you have nothing to do with whether your post goes viral.  Scott Stratten, author of Unmarketing, said it well when he said:

“You can’t make something go viral. You don’t decide, I don’t decide, the audience does”

You can read more about it in this post.  Scott’s advice?  Evoke Strong Emotion.  Emotion that moves us to take action because it is so intense – whether it upsets us, makes us belly laugh till it hurts, inspires us to act or stirs our passion.

So the next time you post on Facebook, remember that it is about the message. If your message is valuable and helps solve the problem of the person viewing the post, then you are off to a great start.

And maybe, just maybe, your message might get shared with another person. And another. And another.  And so it goes.

Have you had a post go viral? Leave a comment below and tell me what the message was, what the special sauce was, ie what made the message worth sharing. It’s not the number of shares…it’s the message that I want to hear about!  

Mine did.  And I also thought it a waste of time once, too.  But that all changed when I started to do this one simple action.

So what changed?

How did I go from someone who just didn’t “get” Twitter to someone who thinks it totally rocks.  Because I do. I think Twitter rocks.

By using this simple action (consistently) on Twitter, things started to change. I met great people. I had great conversations…and most of all….I stumbled across great opportunities. Those opportunities ranged from attracting followers to my list to fans becoming clients….to speaking and guest blogging opportunities. It also extended to some amazing joint ventures.

What was it?

I clicked.  

Clicked?, you say.

Yes. I clicked.

Let me put it this way. I decided to find out about people.  Rather than just letting a simple “follow” or @mention happen, I took it upon myself to do a 2 step process:

I would thank the person in a simple Tweet but before I would reach out to the person, I would click on their profile.  I would read their profile description, notice who they were, notice where they worked, notice what they are tweeting about.

I would check out any links, look at the hashtags in their profile, take note of their personal interests….Twitter Stalking (but in a good way).  These people have bothered to put their information on their profile for a reason – so that you can find out more about them and connect with them. Then (and only then) would I thank them. With the background information that I need to thank them with a personal touch. 

Why do it this way?  

Because if you stop at doing a simple RT (or thanking a person for an RT or mention) without bothering to find out who the person is, how can you truly engage with them?  How can you connect with them?

I want to share with you all the good stuff that happens when you do click on someone’s profile and take the time to find out about them…and if you stick with me, be sure to check out the tweets at the end of this post which showcase (rather embarrasingly) what happened when I didn’t do it one day recently – the reason why I felt compelled to write this post for you.  

If you do not click on their profile, how can you know that they are the one that will:

• provide you with a service you have been looking for?
• put you in touch with an influencer you have been wanting to meet?
• interview you for their new show?
• be a great person to network with because they live around the corner from you?
• be attending the same conference you will and end up being a friend?
• turn out to be an an Academy Award Winning Hollywood Director that you hugely admire? 
• turn out to be the Fashion editor of Cosmo and judge on Project Runway with an audience of over 500,000 followers (and even though you don’t write about fashion, her sharing of your infographic on Pinterest gets airplay for a big audience of fashion-loving Pinterest users)?
• be organising an amazing conference that you will end up speaking at?
• be the owner of a growing start up company that you can possibly do joint ventures with?

Guess what?  All of the above and more have happened to me.  Even the Academy Award Winning Hollywood Director.  Yep.  And had I not clicked on the profile of these people I would have missed these opportunities.  Got your attention yet?

What happens if you don’t do this strategy?

It’s pretty simple really. You risk missing out on some awesome connections. If you aren’t convinced that it is worth taking the time, let’s take a look at what happened recently, when I got a nice RT of my guest post on the blog of Social CRM, Nimble. I was flat out working, had to get to an appointment, and I quickly responded to some RTs, neglecting to click on the profiles as I usually would:

Here is the RT I received and I replied with a simple thank you for the RT, not checking the profile first:

It was only later, that I clicked on the profiles I had missed out of curiosity. Guess who Jon was?

The CEO of Nimble.

Yep.  Had I not checked I would never have realised. I actually did recognise Jon’s name when I stopped to think about it, but that couldn’t really undo the fact that I had missed it in my haste.  Right then and there, I did two things:

1. Decided to write this post.  
2. Replied to Jon again to extend the conversation, as I should have initially, acknowledging his great CRM and also one of their team members, Alyson, who had helped me to organise the guest post:

@sociallysorted Thx for the kind @nimble props Donna – We #Love our @alyson2 too!

— Jon Ferrara #SocBiz (@Jon_Ferrara) April 26, 2013

If you don’t click, how can you get to know the person you need to meet? or your ideal client? or the person that will become a fan, client or raving brand advocate for life? So the next time you are on Twitter, take some extra time to find out about people. You will be glad you did.

….and yes, I will be tweeting Jon to let him know about this post. I am sure he will find it amusing.  

I am going to call it.  For me, Twitter gets more engagement than Facebook… if you do it right.  Leave a comment below and tell me about a connection you have made on Twitter.  And don’t forget to leave your Twitter Username in the comment so that I can check out your profile!  

Then you do NOT want to miss this post – because you could be missing these simple actions that will help to ensure that your content is noticed, clicked on and shared.

When sharing content, it is becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd.

These simple actions will ensure that your Slideshare and YouTube content stands out from the average post and gets seen by more eyes and gets noticed.  Because if it isn’t noticed, then how can it be viewed or shared?

Let’s jump to it.  Start including the following tips in your “sharing arsenal” if you have YouTube or Slideshare content. 

1  YouTube Videos Play directly from the Twitter Newsfeed

When you share your video content from YouTube to Twitter, Twitter will pull the video in as a media file/video and this allows the viewer to open the video from right within the newsfeed on Twitter, as in the example below.  Video stands out on Twitter.  

The video appears in the actual Twitter newsfeed!

An added bonus?  The video, by nature of the way that you have shared it, is automatically recognised by Twitter as a video file, and voila….it is featured in your Media Gallery.  So, if someone comes to your profile, they can see a series of images and video – just another way to showcase the content that you share.  Notice how the PLAY button appears on all of these examples?  What an irresistable offer to click Play and watch your content!

Note that the YouTube video is featured immediately in the Media Gallery!

Why is this so impressive?  Because it also allows mobile users to open the file from right there on their smartphone. Are you with me?  I don’t need to give you the stats on mobile users now do I?  Good.  Because we should all know by now that if you can get your content into the hands of mobile users, you are getting your content on the eyes of more people.  Sorted!

Take Action:   Be sure that you:

• Share Your YouTube content to Twitter – either via URL or the “share” function on your YouTube Channel
• Share the YouTube content of others to Twitter – be the person that shares great content. And great video content that opens from directly within the Twitter newsfeed is great content.  Especially for a smart phone user who can easily click through and watch the video from their mobile device.

2  Slideshare Slideshows play directly from the Twitter Newsfeed

Just as for YouTube, sharing SlideShare Slideshows to Twitter has some of the same benefits. The slideshow plays from directly within the newsfeed.  You have to love that!  

Blog Growth‘s great slide deck stands out visually on Twitter!

And yes, if the user clicks through, they can easily click through the slide deck from right there on their phone.  Sorted!

Take Action: 

• Share Your Slideshare content to Twitter – either via URL or the “share” function on your Slideshow post in Slideshare.
• Share the Slideshare content of others to Twitter – be the person that shares great content, as for the YouTube content above.

3  YouTube Videos and Slideshare Decks play directly from the Pinterest Newsfeed

Do you get where I am going with this?  It’s all about instantly “playable” visual content. And Pinterest is a winner for allowing you to have your videos and slideshows play from within the Pinterest newsfeed.

Amy Porterfield‘s Slideshare Presentation stands out with a visual Call to Action: Click PLAY!

Just like SlideShare shows as a “playable” slide deck, video is just the same on Pinterest. YouTube videos show up as a playable video – the play button indicating a very clear call to action!

Video Stands out on Pinterest – be like Oprah and pin your video content!

Why is this so shockingly revealing?  Well, it isn’t really. It’s pretty obvious that videos and slideshows show up in the newsfeed on Pinterest.  What is surprising about it though, is that very few Pinterest users take advantage of it?  The videos and slideshare decks stand out because they have a PLAY button on them. People share them like wildfire, but guess what? Very few users bother to UPLOAD this type of content in the first place.

If you know me, you will know that I have harped on about how 80% of Pinterest pins are “re-pins”.  And of course this means that if you upload your own content you are in the 20% of content that is re-pinned. You do the math.

If you are uploading content that is original AND unique (remember I said very few people actually upload slideshare or video content?) – then you are ahead of the game and putting your content out there to be snapped up, viewed and shared!

Even if you don’t have content of your own on these platforms….do it with the content of others. Remember that sharing the content of others is just as important as sharing your own content, so be sure that you curate as well as create content:

Tell me, have you shared your original slide or video content to Pinterest or YouTube?  Check out some of the boards we have set up on Pinterest to showcase great slides and videos and be sure to follow us over at Pinterest!  

This Infographic of the Week is from Mauro D’Andrea from Blog Growth and is guaranteed to have you think differently about how you price your products and services – online and off.  And our regular Infographic Breakdown feature will take you inside the components of this thought-provoking infographic.

[Disclaimer] Our team was fortunate to be able to help Blog Growth to create this infographic but it is truly one of our favourites! Our Infographic Breakdown highlights the key components that went into its design and execution:

Infographic Breakdown:

This infographic was super-fun to create. Not only because Mauro is one of the Top Influencers on Slideshare (so has a great creative mind and capacity for visual storytelling – hence was fun to work with!) …but because we had a challenge to showcase research using images.  Academic meets creative.

Here are some of the components of this infographic that we love:

• The infographic breaks down text-heavy research articles into visuals complemented by text.  For the most  part we hoped to convey the research with as little text as necessary.
• It is visually appealing.  The Einstein character adds some light-heartedness to the infographic.  Adding a visual element like this character helps to tie all of the elements together – essentially this infographic is comprised of multiple “stories” or examples, so having a common thread helps to draw the viewer’s eye down the infographic into the next section. He is also little bit cheeky, which we like. 
• Having “Takeaways” helps to bring the message of the infographic home in 3 key ways:
  • the images alone tell a story (complemented by minimal text)
  • the takeaways confirm that story – the key message
  • the research and references provide the back up should the viewer/reader wish to go deeper into the hows and why’s.
• This is a research based “Classic” type of infographic with references, but by using images to tell a story (rather than just a series of pie graphs and bar graphs) we hope to make what potentially could be an academic subject “interesting”.  And by adding beer, well, let’s face it, anything becomes interesting and relatable.

Here it is:

Please share with your networks and if you share this infographic on your blog, be sure to reference Mauro’s infographic and blog post at:  http://www.blog-growth.com/the-science-of-pricing/. Want to find out more about getting more blog traffic?  You can follow Mauro’s blog at Blog Growth.

Contact our team at Socially Sorted to talk to us about how we can work with your brand or blog to showcase a product, service or idea – by using infographics.  

Do you have a blog or website? Do you sell products or services?  How will the information on this infographic change (if any) your pricing strategy in future?  Or if you have a brick-and-mortar business, will you consider these strategies there too?  

This Post (Part 2 – you can check out Part 1 here) features another 27 amazing sessions on topics ranging from everything from Podcasting to Pinterest and all the Content in between.

Day 2 of Social Media Marketing World and the Tweets get even harder to pick for featuring here!

I have to say at this point, it was a tough descision about which session to attend – they were all stellar! I am sure I felt my two legs battling for alternate directions at one stage, with my torso spinning in yet another. Thank goodness for the virtual pass or I would have been walking around in circles!

The Breakfast Keynote session saw 4 of the quickest minds in Social Media today shared the stage together to chew the proverbial keynote fat about whether we are getting Smarter or just Busier. Jay Baer, Mario Sundar, Chris Brogan and Mark Schaefer were less like a panel and more like a group of blokes having a conversation over drinks with the entire room:

Find your most passionate members of your community and engage them via @mariosundar #smmw13

— Likeable Media(@LikeableMedia) April 9, 2013

“Instead of finding my target audience my audience found me.” –a true testament to Always Be Yourself.Thanks @markwschaefer #smmw13

— Heath Rost (@HeathRost) April 9, 2013

Continue to help others! People w/ hand out get hand slapped. People who help others stand out! @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Be the world-class concierge of people’s passion in social–it’s not about “me.” @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

— Dun & Bradstreet (@DnBUS) April 9, 2013

If you consider social media a sign of work, then you’re doing it wrong. ~ @mariosundar #smmw13

— Oneicity (@oneicity) April 9, 2013

“You can’t be an expert in everything and you have to choose your battles” @markwschaefer #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 9, 2013

.@chrisbrogan wishes he would have started his newsletter earlier. W/10x less volume vs. social, it has 10x more biz impact. #SMMW13

— Hoover’s (@Hoovers) April 9, 2013

loved it! RT @annemccoll: Tactics not tools. @chrisbrogan #sketchtweet #smmw13 twitter.com/annemccoll/sta…

— Dave Gannon (@dhgatsby) April 11, 2013

@chrisbrogan says he gets far more exposure by reviewing and commenting on Amazon books. Wow! #smmw13

— Waynette Tubbs (@WaynetteTubbs) April 9, 2013

The hot new social network is doing social media well – @jaybaer #smmw13 #wisdom #socialmedia

— Melissa Mackey (@MACK_ATTACK) April 9, 2013

When we are hungry for business we throw seeds, scattering them rather than cultivating a smaller patch. Via @chrisbrogan #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

@jaybaer: I use the ‘rule of three’ at work (after third email, pick up the PHONE). After that, you’re wasting time. #smmw13

— Debra Jasper (@DebraJasper) April 9, 2013

You can’t push the field to create more corn without destroying the field for the year after @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

— Eric T. Tung (@EricTTung) April 9, 2013

Write content that people will go back to, like a recipe -@chrisbrogan #smmw13

— Kate Warnock (@mkatewarnock) April 9, 2013

Always be collecting ideas. Jot down headlines and bring them to life in your blog when you are ready to write. @markwschaefer #SMMW13

— Moosylvania (@moosylvania) April 9, 2013

The inbox is the best social network in the world – @chrisbrogan #smmw13 c @exacttarget

— Kyle Lacy (@kyleplacy) April 9, 2013

Content is the fire and social media is the gasoline. @jaybaer #SMMW13

— Kim Garstツ (@kimgarst) April 8, 2013

In a packed room, the ever-lovely Amy Porterfield did what she does best – give a session packed with takeaways. The Twitter feed reflected it. One attendee described her session as “Rapid Fire Full of Brilliance”. Yep.

You do not need to master facebook marketing, create a plan to leverage Facebook Marketing.@amyporterfield #SMMW13

— Eric T. Tung (@EricTTung) April 9, 2013

#smmw13 take away from @amyporterfield – Facebook marketing as a holistic approach should combine email marketing, landing pages to convert

— TriplePoint Inc. (@TriplePointInc) April 9, 2013

Go find out who’s doing it right, and go model their strategies. @amyporterfield #smmw13

— James Hahn II (@JamesHahnII) April 9, 2013

“Make a list of 5 topics for niche and 5 unrelated to niche. People love to see the personal stuff.” Absolutely @amyporterfield #smmw13

— Alexandra Briggs (@ac_briggs) April 9, 2013

Never post on Facebook if you aren’t educating, entertaining, or empowering. – @amyporterfield #smmw13

— Krista Smith (@krista0955) April 9, 2013

“When people see ‘today’ in an ad [status/picture] they tend to pay more attention to it.” Pro Facebook tip from @amyporterfield #smmw13

— Heath Rost (@HeathRost) April 9, 2013

@amyporterfield: Facebook Offers is the only Facebook ad that gets you into people’s personal email. #SMMW13

— Larry Castle (@geekbert) April 9, 2013

@amyporterfield: get leads from Facebook but the best way to convert your leads is email marketing. #SMMW13 @kjellfish @bdawson24

— Larry Castle (@geekbert) April 9, 2013

Chris Brogan’s highly anticipated session on “You Aren’t Going to Like This: Social Media isn’t the answer” delivered. Packed full of Brogan-esque quips, it was a packed session with people hanging off the walls and out the door…

Stop using silly toys, focus on the goal/outcome to lead your strategy. #smmw13 @chrisbrogan

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 9, 2013

“I checked with my bank; my bank does not take Klout! I have an 87, bitches! They still want me to pay my mortgage.” @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

— Michael Hermus (@mikehermus) April 9, 2013

239,000 Twitter followers not as productive as 29,000 email subscribers. @chrisbrogan #smmw13

— Josh Loftin (@joshloftin) April 9, 2013

Build the biggest list of people who love to engage with you. @chrisbrogan #smmw13

— Angela Smith (@angelamarie85) April 9, 2013

The idea of your homebase is not to send people away on your social platforms @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

—M. Ambassador Bruny (@ambassadorbruny) April 9, 2013

Keep social links in ‘about’ section on web-site…you want people to stay on your site & subscribe @chrisbrogan #smmw13

— tracyroeschwillams (@alaskatracy) April 9, 2013

@chrisbrogan has two metrics. 1) how many subscribers to newsletter 2) how much money is in the bank account. #smmw13

— Tery Garras (@spokalou) April 9, 2013

The blog gave me a lot of opportunities, the newsletter provides me business. @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

—M. Ambassador Bruny (@ambassadorbruny) April 9, 2013

@chrisbrogan says G+ twice as big & twice as active as Twitter, w/ extra SEO juice; still don’t want to be there?#smmw13

— Tom_Collins (@Tom_Collins) April 9, 2013

“When you make them (your community) the flag carrier, they’ll carry that flag farther than you ever could.” @chrisbrogan #SMMW13

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 9, 2013

…and the funniest tweet of the Chris Brogan session goes to Waynette Tubbs:

There’s a longer line waiting to speak to @chrisbrogan than to get into the ladies room! #smmw13 twitter.com/WaynetteTubbs/…

— Waynette Tubbs (@WaynetteTubbs) April 9, 2013

…and the brilliant Anne McColl gave us this creative visual summary of the Chris’ session:

#sketchnotes @chrisbrogan Social media is not the answer #smmw13. twitter.com/annemccoll/sta…

— Anne McColl (@annemccoll) April 9, 2013

Srinivas Rao joined Marcus Sheridan, Michael Stelzner and Joe Pulizzi for “How to Build a Thriving Community with Blogs” – helping us tap into their experience – too many tweets to mention but here is a bunch of the good ones!

“Give people what they want. People don’t care about your opinion; they care about themselves” #SMMW13 @mike_stelzner

— Nicole Bullock (@cuteculturechic) April 9, 2013

Calls to action on your blog to create conversion to email list = gold. Email is direct communication. via @mike_stelzner #SMMW13

— Peg Fitzpatrick(@PegFitzpatrick) April 9, 2013

provide great value with every blog post you publish and people will come back, consume it and evangelize it says @mike_stelzner#smmw13

— Patricia Redsicker (@predsicker) April 9, 2013

Know what you’re good with, let go of what you aren’t good at. @thesaleslion #SMMW13

— Peg Fitzpatrick(@PegFitzpatrick) April 9, 2013

RT @melonie: Rewrite your bio to talk about the problems you solve. @thesaleslion #smmw13

— Gema Almilli (@uxgema) April 9, 2013

People hate email pop ups but they convert, the numbers show it! Release your opinions and do what works says @thesaleslion at #smmw13

— Patricia Redsicker (@predsicker) April 9, 2013

Think like your clients, get in their heads, and solve their problems. Don’t wait for perfection-start writing now! @thesaleslion at #smmw13

— Luke Rumley (@lukerumley) April 9, 2013

Have reader personas for your blog. What are those readers’ pain points? Solve a problem in a post. Give away secrets. @juntajoe #smmw13

— Luke Rumley (@lukerumley) April 9, 2013

The number one reason corporate blogs fail is because they stop – @juntajoe#smmw13

— Sarah Kuglin (@sarahkuglin) April 9, 2013

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn -they are not assets and you are only building on rented land. Your blog is YOURS @juntajoe #SMMW13

— Paola Elízaga (@pawichiz) April 9, 2013

Thank each person who signs up for your newsletter with a personal email -via @skooloflife #smmw13

— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) April 9, 2013

Cliff Ravenscraft may well have inspired a flurry of new podcasts from attendees – watch this space:

.@gspn sharing why #podcasting is awesome – 128.3 million commuters who could listen to YOUR content while driving #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

#podcasts let others hear the authenticity in your voice – you’re able to develop a deeper relationship with your community @gspn #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

There are 450M active English blogs, but only 200K podcasts. @gspn #SMMW13

— Ekaterina Walter (@Ekaterina) April 9, 2013

Audio quality is the Queen, content is King. Sometimes the Queen trumps the King! Via @gspn #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

My Pet Peeve – long, rambling self promoting intros to your #podcast don’t do it – 30 second intro then into content via @gspn #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

…and when Michael Bepko (Whole Foods), Liz Phillips (TaylorMade) and Shelly Lucas (Dun & Bradstreet) joined Neal Schaffer to talk about Twitter Marketing – it was not surprising that the Twitter Feed had plenty to say:

The @wholefoods Twitter strategy? CUSTOMER SERVICE & amplification of content by identifying & segmenting community needs. #SMMW13

— Michael Aaron Bepko (@Bepkoboy) April 9, 2013

When responding on Twitter, provide a solution & response (quickly) – it will show you’re interactive and engaging #SMMW13 @bepkoboy

— Lindsey Sanford(@LindseySanford) April 9, 2013

Love how @bepkoboy has at least 12 niche communities based on lifestyles that he speaks to from @wholefoods twitter channel. #smmw13

— Evy Wilkins (@mainwilk) April 9, 2013

Customer service for @wholefoods = Traffic control to 245 locally-managed accounts; every inbound tweet is a valued touchpoint. #SMMW13

— Michael Aaron Bepko (@Bepkoboy) April 9, 2013

Love how @wholefoods is practicing what they preach and engaging with us during @bepkoboy‘s talk #SMMW13

— Lindsey Sanford(@LindseySanford) April 9, 2013

I loved it too Lindsey – very classy!

Here’s my awesome view right now… Really love the crowd here at #SMMW13! twitter.com/Bepkoboy/statu…

— Michael Aaron Bepko (@Bepkoboy) April 9, 2013

BE RELEVANT! Do not push your brand – help others! @pisarose @dnbus #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

@dunbradstreet Don’t use Twitter as a Megaphone – @pisarose #smmw13

— Sherry Hayes-Peirce (@trainerchick47) April 9, 2013

#Twitter takes time and consistency on a regular basis or YOU WILL LOSE OUT! @pisarose @dnbus #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

RT @kinetekmedia: Reach out to people who have answers! Get away from the computer and get creative. @pisarose @dnbus #SMMW13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Provide real time inside the ropes content to consumers via @iizliz #smmw13

— Likeable Media(@LikeableMedia) April 9, 2013

Before a big announcement or brand launch @taylormadegolf anounces to brand ambassadors to get traction. @iizliz #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Utilize user generated tweets to tell your story about your products via @taylormadegolf @iizliz #smmw13

— Michele Weisman (@ottogrl) April 9, 2013

Want to be a great community manager on Twitter? Be helpful, humble, fun, positive & creative. – @iizliz #smmw13

— Katie Kearsey (@kmkearsey) April 9, 2013

Beth Hayden held the first Pinterest session where she shared tips for getting an avalanche of targeted traffic to your website or blog. Very Pinteresting!

Think of a pin board as a collection of resources @bethjhayden #smmw13

— Catrin Walsh (@catrinewalsh) April 9, 2013

Wow! Web site referrals from Pinterest are much more engaged on your web site than you think @bethjhayden #smmw13

— Greg McMurdie (@GregMcMurdie) April 9, 2013

There’s more to #Pinterest than photos of Ryan Gosling. Think lead gen –> web traffic! @bethjhayden #SMMW13

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 9, 2013

Marry Pinterest with your blog – a match made in heaven! #SMMW13 via @bethjhayden

— Dana Haesemeyer (@DDWordNerd) April 9, 2013

Don’t forget CTAs on landing pagesfor Pinterest traffic. @bethjhayden #smmw13

— Catrin Walsh (@catrinewalsh) April 9, 2013

Transform your co.’s #Pinterest account to a business to access new analytics. #smmw13 @bethjhayden

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 9, 2013

Use picmonkey, lunatic or pix.lr to create pin-worthy badges that includes your blog title. @bethjhayden #smmw13#socialmediatip

— Kristen Moore (@KristenKMoore) April 9, 2013

LinkedIn Expert Viveka von Rosen wowed us with her LinkedIn Savvy.

If you haven’t, utilise LinkedIn’s Target Services Page once you’ve added your product/services – via @linkedinexpert #smmw13

— Matty Soccio (@MattySoccio) April 9, 2013

@linkedinexpert “what should be on your business page”? – great examples business page MLT Creative, IBM and Social Media Examiner #smmw13

— Sherry Hayes-Peirce (@trainerchick47) April 9, 2013

Michael Brito, author of “Smart Business, Social Business” shared his insights for turning your brand into the next media company. Twitter liked.

Media companies are:-content machines-relevant-recent and timely-omnipresent-agileYou should be like them. Via @britopian #SMMW13

— Michael Hermus (@mikehermus) April 9, 2013

Your 2013 content strategy should be to transition your brand to a media company. @britopian #smmw13

— LaSandra Brill (@LaSandraBrill) April 9, 2013

There’s a content surplus, an attention deficit, and unpredictable lives. You have to have multiple touch points. @britopian #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Understand the difference between social brand and social business. Brand is external, business is internal. @britopian #SMMW13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Find people to feed your content engine. Build a content editorial team. – @britopian #smmw13

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 9, 2013

I (and many others) were happy to stand for Pat Flynn’s session. The man deserved it. Stellar advice from the guy who has built a podcasting empire. Thanks Pat!

Besides being in person, there’s no better way to develop a real one-on-one relationship with people other than a podcast. @patflynn #smmw13

— James Hahn II (@JamesHahnII) April 9, 2013

Remember: keywords & meta data are still important when posting your podcast -via @patflynn #smmw13 #smmwpat

— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) April 9, 2013

Encourage your listeners to subscribe to other podcasts – it will help you show up in searches -via @patflynn #smmw13

— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) April 9, 2013

Every once in awhile ask them for a review or to rate the show – involve your audience #smmw13 #smmwpat via @patflynn

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

Podcasting tip: Get your audience involved – mention people’s names, have guests, make it personal & human -via @patflynn #smmw13

— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) April 9, 2013

Susan Wassel (Sharpie), Ekaterina Walker (Intel) and Kat Smith (Petco) lead a powerhouse big brand discussion on community building. Here is some of what they had to say:

“@lisackeller: Visual content is currency today in the social space. Split btw UGC and brand-created content. #smmw13 @sharpie”

— Jenneil Peters (@JenneilPeters) April 9, 2013

quick social test – when’s the last time you highlighted a fan? Take a note from @sharpie and make it your focus #smmw13

— Lisa Keller (@lisackeller) April 9, 2013

If you can create #Twitter excitement for permanent pens anyone can have a presence! @sharpie #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

seek out your 10% of passionate brand advocates, and they will help turn your likes to loves. #smmw13 @ekaterina

— Moosylvania (@moosylvania) April 9, 2013

Be strategic about what will bring the most amount of value the fastest. [focus on a social media channel] @kittykatsmith #smmw13

— Melonie Gallegos (@melonie) April 9, 2013

“Use analytics and active listening to make your fans the star of the show.” – @kittykatsmith @petco #smmw13

— christopher carfi (@ccarfi) April 9, 2013

Lee Odden had plenty of takeaways from his presentation on blogs and attracting the right readers, engaging them and inspiring them to action:

Be the “Best Answer” for what you want to be known for. @leeodden #SMMW13 #BlogAction

— Rob Stevens (@SuperRob) April 9, 2013

Your passion with your customer needs will encourage the creation of amazing stories that engage @leeodden #smmw13 #blogaction

— Brian Short (@brianshort86) April 9, 2013

Be known for a concept…and dominate that with great content! @leeodden #smmw13

— Andrea N De La Cerda (@AndreaNDLC) April 9, 2013

And here’s Lee’s Awesome wrap up post! – a must read!

Here’s my wrap-up post from Social Media Marketing World this week. If you attended, what was your fave part? ow.ly/jXGVK #SMMW13

— Lee Odden (@leeodden) April 11, 2013

Eduardo Tobin shared the secrets that keep Diners Club International relevant in today’s social media world:

With trust, community and conversation, you can transcend transactions as a brand – @etobon @dinersclub #SMMW13

— Megan Colgan (@MegColgan) April 9, 2013

4 Cs: Credibilty, Care, Congruency & Community. #smmw13 via @dinersclub

— Lisa Loeffler (@LisaMLoeffler) April 9, 2013

Jesse Stay answered the question about whether we should be on Google Plus with a resounding ABSOLUTELY! …and had us using Google Plus instead of Twitter to share our thoughts!

Wow. @jesse is forcing me to use Google+ to share my thoughts instead of tweet. This is so awkward… #smmw13

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 9, 2013

. @jesse saw a 300% increase in traffic with articles that were “tied” with Google+ profiles (Google authorship). #SMMW13

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 9, 2013

If you’re not going to personalize your messages, atleast automate to Google+. It matters on Google+. – @jesse #SMMW13

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 9, 2013

Paul Colligan lead a great Online Video Panel comprised of powerhouse content creators, Jim Louderback (Revision3), Julie Perry (Blast Media) and Yuri Baranovsky (Happy Little Guillotine Films)

How Online Video Pulls Real Engagement and… #panelshot @colligan @jlouderb @yuribaranovsky Julie Perry #smmw13 twitter.com/melonie/status…

— Melonie Gallegos (@melonie) April 9, 2013

You want to reach geeks? Find how to integrate your product/service into a place they’re already engaged with. @jlouderb #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Real engagement for video is sharing, commenting, subscribing, and rewinding – it’s not just a like. @jlouderb #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

YouTube is a great place to repurpose content. Remarket the content you already have into video. @julieperry #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Advertise the brand, not the product. That drives retention and purchases in the future. @yuribaranovsky #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Mark Schaefer returned to the platform again to lead a session with Susan Wassell (Sharpie), Brian Stakoe (Caterpillar) and Kerri Holden (Four seasons Hotels & Resorts) – How to Transform Organizational Culture with Social Media.

.@fourseasons invests in social training for all its properties. @cpkerri trains all PR directors on social tools #thoughtleader #smmw13

— Michele Weisman (@ottogrl) April 9, 2013

Great tip: @sharpie provides employee sharing tools on intranet for each campaign. #smmw13

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 9, 2013

“Don’t look at Social as a separate entity: it is an enabler of your marketing programs” @brian_stokoe from Caterpillar #SMMW13

— Michael Hermus (@mikehermus) April 9, 2013

.@caterpillarinc has a strong branding group & voice. Carry that into Social. Don’t recreate the wheel. @brian_stokoe #SMMW13

— Eric T. Tung (@EricTTung) April 9, 2013

Andrea Vahl and Lori Wildrick (Petco) with Sarah Robinson rocked Communities (and how to build thriving ones with Facebook) in a packed room….Kyle Lacy was left standing up the back:

@sarahrobinson @andreavahl standingup in the back #smmw13

— Kyle Lacy (@kyleplacy) April 9, 2013

Having an editorial calendar is the #1 strategy for Facebook community building says @andreavahl at#smmw13

— Patricia Redsicker (@predsicker) April 11, 2013

Allow your community to deal w/ trolls someone will step in for you!@loriwildrick @petco! #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

“Use @evernote to save great content to share later.” @andreavahl #smmw13

— Peg Fitzpatrick(@PegFitzpatrick) April 9, 2013

You MUST REMEMBER YOUR FANS! Reward them, they are the star of the show!! @loriwildrick @petco #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

@andreavahl says have both an editorial calendar AND an activity calendar. Great distinction and advice. #smmw13

— Tom_Collins (@Tom_Collins) April 9, 2013

Important point on Facebook moderation from @loriwildrick don’t get too attached or emotional. Take a break and step back #SMMW13

— Sean Callanan (@seancallanan) April 9, 2013

When you’re on a roll write a few more posts for the down day coming! @loriwildrick @petco! #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Mark Schaefer’s Twitter session went off and so did the Twitter Feed:

build your twitter community “one tweet at a time” Great session by @markwschaefer at #smmw13

— Marco A. Alonso (@malonso21) April 9, 2013

many of the benefits of twitter are qualitative, NOT quantitative -@markwschaefer #smmw13

— Lance Brown (@WTWH_SocialGuru) April 9, 2013

On twitter you need a content strategy AND a network strategy. It’s about initiating engagement, not waiting for it. #SMMW13 @markwschaefer

— Lindsey Sanford(@LindseySanford) April 9, 2013

“Twitter is networking on STEROIDS”@markwschaefer #SMMW13

— Sam Ashdown (@thehometruths) April 9, 2013

People now buy and sell like they did before the digital age: person to person -via @markwschaefer #smmw13 twitter.com/HollyChessman/…

— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) April 9, 2013

“Social isn’t about B2B or B2C it’s about P2P” #SMMW13 @markwschaefer

— Lindsey Sanford(@LindseySanford) April 9, 2013

Need to focus not only on likes, RTs & shares you are getting, but also how many you are GIVING @markwschaefer says. #smmw13

— Jay Palter (@jaypalter) April 9, 2013

A much anticipated session was “Podcasting Tips from the Pros” – with Cliff Ravenscraft, Pat Flynn and Michael Stelzner:

[Pic linked this time] Podcasting Tips From the Pros #panelshot @mike_stelzner @patflynn @gspn #smmw13 twitter.com/melonie/status…

— Melonie Gallegos (@melonie) April 10, 2013

I truly believe this!! RT @melonie: You are more likely to gain success by helping other people achieve success. @gspn #smmw13 #love

— Emma Goda (@emmagoda) April 9, 2013

.@mike_stelzner suggests interviewing others for those who are concerned about being a talking head. #podcasting #smmw13

— Debra Simpson (@debrasimpson) April 9, 2013

Who can provide value to my audience? @mike_stelzner uses podcasting to build relationships #SMMW13

— Kate Warnock (@mkatewarnock) April 9, 2013

Your podcast is your platform off of which you can sell your business. @mike_stelzner#smmw13

— Vici Koster-Lenhardt (@vkosterlenhardt) April 9, 2013

450 millions blogs vs 200.000 podcast #smmw13 @mike_stelzner @patflynn

— Gabriel Murillo (@gabrielmurillo) April 9, 2013

Record 3-4 podcasts before launching the podcast. @patflynn #smmw13

— Vici Koster-Lenhardt (@vkosterlenhardt) April 9, 2013

Always put call to action at the end. @patflynn #smmw13

— Vici Koster-Lenhardt (@vkosterlenhardt) April 9, 2013

Audiences might consume your podcasts that they wouldn’t take the time to read or view -@patflynn #smmw13

— Kate Warnock (@mkatewarnock) April 9, 2013

Everyone wanted to know about what Sony and San Diego Zoo are leveraging Pinterest and Instagram

Callan Green (Sony) wowed us with a walk-through of what happens behind the scenes with Sony’s Pinterest strategy:

Tips for Pinterest strategy: Research, Strategize, Test, Restrategize (if necessary), then Public Launch via @callanpaola #smmw13

— Michele Weisman (@ottogrl) April 9, 2013

Look at the popular pins that already exist on @pinterest to discover what content to create on your own. – @callanpaola #smmw13

— Katy Harrison (@KatyHarrison20) April 9, 2013

The average American spends 17min a day on Pinterest, and it’s affecting their purchase decisions @callanpaola #smmw13

— Rachel Hamblin (@RachelHamblin) April 9, 2013

Avg #socialmedia purchase $85, avg Pinterest user purchase $180 – @callanpaola #smmw13

— Lisa Keller (@lisackeller) April 9, 2013

Karen Worley finished off with her presentation on Instagram. As someone who loves visual marketing and who also just spent a day at the Zoo with my kids, I was very impressed by the Zoo’s use of visual social media, particularly Instagram. The session from both ladies was excellent!

“Employees are the most successful and enthusiastic brand ambassadors” Karen Worley #smmw13 @sandiegozoo

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 9, 2013

OMG! Breakin’ news on Instagram ROI – you can use STATIGRAM that’s what the San Diego Zoo uses thanks @sandiegozoo#smmw13

— Sherry Hayes-Peirce (@trainerchick47) April 9, 2013

“Photos are the meat in your post” Karen Worley @sandiegozoo #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 9, 2013

Ask questions in your #Instagram photo captions to encourage engagement #smmw13 @sandiegozoo

— Lisa Keller (@lisackeller) April 9, 2013

65% of population are visual learners – spark emotional bond using visuals like @pinterest or @instagram – @sandiegozoo #smmw13

— Katy Harrison (@KatyHarrison20) April 9, 2013

“13% of the US online population uses #Instagram” – @sandiegozoo #smmw13

— Nathalie Cano (@nathletics) April 9, 2013

Continuing the Visual Marketing theme, Melanie Duncan presented on How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Content and Grow Your Audience:

“Comment on pins in your feed from co. w/ similar demographics to get new fans.” #SMMW13 @melanieduncan7

— Julie Lowe (@julielowe) April 9, 2013

#Pinterest pins with prices get 36% more Likes. cc: @melanieduncan7 #SMMW13

— Sean C. McCornick (@scmccornick) April 9, 2013

“People are on Pinterest to discover, so give them something to discover.” @melanieduncan7 #smmw13

— Joanne Sumner (@JoanneKSumner) April 9, 2013

80% of pins are repins. Energize that community by providing the 20% new content. @melanieduncan7 #smmw13

— Rachel Hamblin (@RachelHamblin) April 9, 2013

#Pinterest tutorial pins see 42% higher CTR. #smmw13 @melanieduncan7

— Lisa Keller (@lisackeller) April 9, 2013

infogr.am – secret tool for creating infographics for those of us that aren’t graphic designers. #smmw13@melanieduncan7

— Joanne Sumner (@JoanneKSumner) April 9, 2013

#Pinterest #tips: Pins over 800 px height receive more repins. Pin some tall pins! Try checklists/infographics. #smmw13 @melanieduncan7

— Moosylvania (@moosylvania) April 9, 2013

Neal Schaffer gave us all things Social Media Strategy:

“You can’t define social media metrics by what the Hootsuite dashboard gives you.” @nealschaffer #SMMW13

— Shelly Lucas (@pisarose) April 9, 2013

Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts @nealschaffer #SMMW13

— Dianapol (@Dianapol) April 9, 2013

#SMMW13 Develop your social media “muscle memory” by practicing daily & it becomes more natural, via @nealschaffer

— Louise Julig (@ThoughtsHappen) April 9, 2013

Douglas Karr discussed what to do when it ain’t all rainbows and lollypops – and how to handle complaints, crises and trolls!

Keep perspective.#socialmedia crises last a few hours to a few days. A blip in the big picture. @douglaskarr #smmw13

— Kristen Moore (@KristenKMoore) April 9, 2013

How are you going to take care of customer service issues? Know that before you take on social media. @douglaskarr #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

People hate brands and companies! Empower your staff with a real name and face to desk with CS. @douglaskarr #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Don’t few the trolls!!! Stay on your turf, recruit your fans, and defend yourself. @douglaskarr #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 9, 2013

Do not talk to your trolls, EVER!! @douglaskarr #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Some great insights from Vanessa Cho (Walmart) on Socializing Online for Increased Sales:

Three doors into Walmart.com -Online, Store, Social @vcho22 #smmw13 twitpic.com/ci81qn

— christopher carfi (@ccarfi) April 9, 2013

If Walmart suggests for you to buy something: “meh”; but if Cousin Vinny shares it you’re more likely to purchase it @vcho22 #smmw13

— Robin Williams (@Social_Robin) April 9, 2013

User experience approach: How can we delight and influence the customer? #walmart #smmw13 @vcho22

— Melonie Gallegos (@melonie) April 9, 2013

“We do not ‘start big’ at Walmart. We start small and learn.” – @vcho22 #smmw13

— christopher carfi (@ccarfi) April 9, 2013

You don’t need 2 million people to tell you what your doing wrong in user experience, 6 people is enough @vcho22 #smmw13

— Robin Williams (@Social_Robin) April 9, 2013

…and more brand brilliance from Pam Didner (Intel) and Rajiv Narang (Dell) on Harnessing the Power of Social Data to Grow Your Business:

@pamdidner: pulling the data is easy piece of cake. The hard thing is deciding what to do with the data. #SMMW13 twitter.com/geekbert/statu…

— Larry Castle (@geekbert) April 9, 2013

Marketing is art and science – data can say whatever you want it to, it’s the art of storytelling that drives the impact #smmw13 @pamdidner

— Lindsey Sanford(@LindseySanford) April 9, 2013

#BigData can be classified to 4 boxes: structured/unstructured, external/internal. #SMMW13

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) April 9, 2013

How do you measure #socialmedia efforts? Every biz is different; Dell measures #advocacy of their brand on social networks. #smmw13

— Erica (@startstoblur) April 9, 2013

25k convos listened to in English in @dell‘s Social Command Center, 11 Languages listened to. #Amazed – @guptamun #SMMW13

— Eric T. Tung (@EricTTung) April 9, 2013

And when we didn’t want it all to end, we got to enjoy a fabulous keynote from Dave Kerpen, Mr Likeable himself. Whether it was the orange, his principles of a Likeable Business or just Dave’s booming NY Presence on stage….we were pumped…and grateful:

Respond in your unique brand voice!! @davekerpen #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

Yes! Storytelling has always been the best way to do marketing #SMMW13 ending keynote via @davekerpen

— Louise Julig (@ThoughtsHappen) April 10, 2013

The only thing better than telling your story is to get your customers to tell your story instead @davekerpen @likeablemedia #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 9, 2013

4 most important words in #Business #SocialMedia and Life ~ I’m Sorry and Thank You! #SMMW13

— Doyle Wheeler (@KinetekMedia) April 9, 2013

I could tell you how great Dave’s session was, but let’s do it with Tweets. Elizabeth Macken and Kim Garst have pretty much summed it up:

Just when social media was starting to feel anti- social @davekerpen showed us the happy humanity of it #smmw13

— Elizabeth Macken (@ERMacken) April 10, 2013

Thanks are the highest form of thought – happiness doubled by wonder.What beautiful sentiments #smmw13@davekerpen

— Fiona Lucas (@irespectonline) April 9, 2013

Dave not only brought it but he ROCKED it. @davekerpen #SMMW13

— Kim Garstツ (@kimgarst) April 10, 2013

I have to say that I got lost finding tweets for this post – so many great 140 character summaries of the content that I literally feel like I was in some of the other sessions. It’s a great mini-byte of the virtual pass to come so I can truly catch up on all the sessions I missed.

Scrolling through the tweets has certainly highlighted what a superbly diverse series of speakers we were lucky to experience at #smmw13. It is a testament to Mike Stelzner and his team when I say that any one of the panels, speakers, sessions could have held their own in the ballroom and – in a perfect world – we could have stayed all week and enjoyed every session.

Did you miss Day 1? Check out my Top Tweets from Day 1 here!

Your turn! Check out the tweets above and click through and follow some of the great panellists, speakers and twitter influencers at #smmw13. If you attended, what was your favourite session? Any great tweets that I missed?

With any great conference comes a great Twitter Feed.  This post highlights some of the best tweets of Day 1 of the conference from a range of the sessions attended.  From Michael Stelzner’s opening keynote about the state of Social Media Marketing in 2013 to the insprational closing keynote about how to “Fascinate” from Sally Hogshead, it was a day jam-packed full of takeways, great networking and fabulous content.

As Day 1 of Social Media Marketing World took off, so did the Twitter Feed.  The tweets being posted were stellar. The content was King, and its Queen was the tear-injucing belly laughs that came from speakers like Marcus Sheridan, Brian Carter and Sally Hogshead….as we sometimes tweeted through watery eyes and uncontrollable giggles.  Fast paced, the Twitter Feed was a 140-character-esque summary of the best bytes of the day. Unlike my usual posts, I am going to let the Tweets do the talking today. Enjoy!

Top Tweets from #SMMW13 – Day 1

Hats Off to Michael Stelzner for pulling off an amazing seminar. His Keynote had every one of the 1100 attendees excited about the future of Social Media with the mindblowing statistics he presented about the lead up to here, where we are at, and what marketers will be focusing their social media efforts on in 2013.

Podcasting is the HOTTEST thing in 2013. Period. @mike_stelzner @smexaminer #smmw13

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) April 8, 2013

Blogging is the #1 social media tool marketers want to learn more about via @mike_stelzner. It’s all about owned content. #smmw13

— Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe) April 8, 2013

And Larry Benet wowed us with his tips for becoming master connectors…

The more you give, the more you receive. @larrybenet #SMMW13

— Kim Garstツ (@kimgarst) April 8, 2013

Mari Smith presented to a packed room on 10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Reach ….and the Tweetables filled the Twitter Feed.

Facebook sharing tips: break news, be prompt, create HIGHLY shareable content *relevant* to your audience. #smmw13

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) April 8, 2013

WOW! Love this ratio! RT @marismith: 80% content, 20% promotion. 80% focus on *them*, 20% focus on you. #smmw13

— Bethany Kate (@Bethany_Kate) April 8, 2013

Some helpful tools for FB – Page Analyzer, hyperalerts.no, crowdbooster.com, infingraphic.com #smmw13 via @marismith

— Matty Soccio (@MattySoccio) April 8, 2013

RT @marismith: Content is KING, but engagement is QUEEN and she rules the house!! #smmw13

— Bethany Kate (@Bethany_Kate) April 8, 2013

Mari even prescheduled her own tweet that had me highly impressed and retweeting! …Where Twitter Meets Content Meets Experiential Marketing!

@marismith preschedules interactive tweet during her session.Gold. Just gold.#smmw13 twitter.com/SociallySorted…

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

Jay Baer was brilliant – as expected – his engaging presentation on how to Create Customers for Life had us reaching for our iphones to share the nuggets of wisdom!

The future is having a marketing plan for each piece of content you create. You have to market your marketing! @jaybaer #SMMW13

— Kim Garstツ (@kimgarst) April 8, 2013

“Make more information. Answer more customer questions. Start today” @jaybaer #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

“Create you-tility (be inherently useful) and your customers will keep you close” @jaybaer #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

“Worry less about selling better. Worry more about teaching better” @jaybaer #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

Mr Duct Tape Marketing himself, John Jantsch gave a compelling case for building your online presence the right way and lots of how-to’s that again, filled the Twitter feed…

RT @ducttape: The problem with content is not that you don’t have enough, it’s that you have too much – su.pr/27GGcO #SMMW13

— Natalie Sisson (@nataliesisson) April 8, 2013

Mitch Joel had brands thinking about how they can keep up with fundamental shifts in business with questions like this:

Is your brand relevant enough that your customer would put your icon on the home screen of their smartphone? – @mitchjoel #SMMW13

— Justin Levy (@justinlevy) April 8, 2013

Guy Kawasaki filled his Google+ Session with Marketing Brilliance:

3 word social media strategy from @guykawasaki: Post interesting stuff. #smmw13

— Dave Kerpen (@DaveKerpen) April 8, 2013

Want to succeed in #socialmedia? Stay positive or just shut up! If you can’t add to the conversation, stay out of it. – @guykawasaki #SMMW13

— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) April 8, 2013

Joe Pulizzi had everyone going back to the basics and why we need to think about content first before everything else – and some great tips for developing your content strategy:

“If we focus on the channels we are asking the wrong questions” #smmw13 @juntajoe

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

Focus not on the content, but on the needs of the audience. @juntajoe #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

Jason Miller had this to say while having everyone think about whether their social channels are lead generating:

“A blog is the rug that ties the room together.” #smmw13 #lebowski @jasonmillerca

— Julie Lowe (@julielowe) April 8, 2013

Agreed: “If you’re not on every channel, you’re missing an opportunity.” @jasonmillerca #smmw13

— Josh Loftin (@joshloftin) April 8, 2013

Video Marketing Expert, James Wedmore filled the Twitter Feed with brilliant YouTube advice:

“Consistently create relevant and valuable video content with a compelling call to action” James Wedmore #smmw13

— Mel Rom (@SocialEdiquette) April 8, 2013

Consistency breeds momentum! #YouTube #smmw13 @jameswedmore

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 8, 2013

YouTube is TRAFFIC! @jameswedmore #SMMW13

— Kim Garstツ (@kimgarst) April 8, 2013

…and LaSandre Brill (Cisco) and Brian Ellefritz (SAP) had some great advice for B2B Businesses on Social Strategy:

You have nothing to lose by trying different social campaigns or channels. #B2B #SMMW13 @lasandrabrill @brianellefritz

— Alison Munn (@alisonmunn) April 8, 2013

“We’re in the content and media business now” – @brianellefritz, with respect to social presence #smmw13 #sap

— christopher carfi (@ccarfi) April 8, 2013

Funny Man and Author of “The Like Economy”, Brian Carter had some brilliant insights into using social advertising for leads and sales.

“No matter how many years you’ve been in marketing, you don’t get better at guessing. Test!” – @briancarter #smmw13

— Robin Zebroski (@robinzebroski) April 8, 2013

“If you have an idea for a Facebook Ad and you don’t create 5-10 versions of it, you’re probably not doing it right.” @briancarter#SMMW13

— Michelle Mastro (@PropelMichelle) April 8, 2013

Ric Dragon set off the Twitter Feed with some Tweetables about Community Building in the Digital Age….

Create different types of marketing collateral to appeal to different learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic. @ricdragon #smmw13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 8, 2013

Social proof: Individuals watch those around them and follow suit. Brands can leverage by activating trendsetters. #SMMW13 @ricdragon

— Heather Gjerde (@LilMsSociable) April 8, 2013

Retweets are great reciprocity gifts! #smmw13 @ricdragon #smmw13

— Robin Williams (@Social_Robin) April 8, 2013

“Reciprocity is your atomic weapon in social media.” – @ricdragon Live from #smmw13. Comment thread here: ricdragon.nestivity.com/discussions/51…

— Nestivity (@Nestivity) April 8, 2013

while Kyle Lacy had everyone thinking seriously about Mobile…and other emerging Social and Digital Trends that we simply can not ignore!

It’s not Facebook itself that is the future, it is mobile. -@kylelacy #smmw13

— Isaac A Wardell (@IsaacAWardell) April 8, 2013

Derek Halpern did exactly what we expected him to do – mess with our heads! With his brilliant combination of sales, marketing and conversion psychology and yes…..academic research people….(how does he manage to make that topic engaging…seriously…how does he pull it off)….anyone that ignores Derek is not interested in getting leads and sales!

Never tell your customers how they feel. Tell them a story & let them have their own feelings. @derekhalpern #smmw13

— Dave Kerpen (@DaveKerpen) April 8, 2013

It’s not about the tools. It’s about the people using the tools. @derekhalpern #SMMW13

— Samantha Baudhuin (@SamanthaHPR) April 8, 2013

What stands out gets remembered. What blends in gets ignored. – @derekhalpern #SMMW13

— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) April 8, 2013

Douglas Karr, Justin Levy (Citrix) and Waynette Tubbs (SAS) had plenty for the Twitterfeed with their session on how Brands can use Blogs to Grow their Business:

If you start a corporate blog, make sure you get the search & content teams on board. Blogs are a big boost for search. @justinlevy #SMMW13

— Lee Odden (@leeodden) April 8, 2013

We do not see our blogs as push marketing. It’s a brand humanization effort. #smmw13 #bigb2b #Citrix @justinlevy

— Fandom Marketing (@FandomMarketing) April 8, 2013

Mr Rich Brooks not only showed everyone how to turn Fans into Customers, but he did it with the perspective of someone who is not only a Social Media Expert…but someone who walks the talk and gets results in his own business for clients.

“Create a link that begs people to find out the answer. Create a little mystery” @therichbrooks #smmw13

— Donna Moritz (@SociallySorted) April 8, 2013

“We say we want choices but we want guidance”- @therichbrooks on making it EASY for web consumers to convert – don’t overcomplicate #smmw13

— Liz Philips (@iizLiz) April 8, 2013

@therichbrooks told us to be consistent in branding: FB cover looks like blog page that looks like Twitter cover that looks like….#smmw13

— Shelley C. Miller (@HomeExchangeKey) April 8, 2013

Want more conversion? Create content that answers your customers biggest problems day in and day out. -@therichbrooks #smmw13 #socialmedia

— MARKETiNG Rx ™ (@MarketingRxCa) April 8, 2013

Karaoke Queen and Inbound Marketing Expert Rebecca Corliss (from HubSpot) talked about how to Generate Leads with Social Media – and if the Twitterfeed was anything to go by, her session was full of Tweetables….

Begging never works. Focus on valuable content. @repcor #smmw13

— Kate Rados (@KateRados) April 8, 2013

“Make sure you only pay to promote content that your audience want to see”Great advice from @repcor #smmw13

— AndreaVahl (@AndreaVahl) April 8, 2013

RT @leeodden: Photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than regular posts via @hubspot @repcor #SMMW13

— David Wallace (@DavidWallace) April 8, 2013

Get your marketing ready for lead generation: what is your honey to attract the bees? -@repcor #smmw13

— Evy Wilkins (@mainwilk) April 8, 2013

With so many great sessions on, I missed the brilliant Steve Spangler, but I have it on good authority that his session was explosively engaging – a mix of science and marketing insights from the man who became a YouTube Sensation with his Science Experiment Videos:

Subscribers and comments more important than views.via @stevespangler #smmw13

— Laura Rubinstein (@CoachLaura) April 8, 2013

@stevespangler showed 2 vids, 1 shot w/ pro crew & equip (10K views) other shot by same speaker on his own iphone (200K views) #smmw13

— Tom_Collins (@Tom_Collins) April 8, 2013

…while Nichole Kelly had some great wisdom about delivering measurable results with Social Media:

“Here’s the tools you need to measure social ROI: 1. Dashboard 2. Web Analytics 3. Marketing Automation 4. CRM” – @nicole_kelly #smmw13

— Zane Riley (@zaneriley) April 8, 2013

“Social media is good at three things: 1. Brand Awareness, 2. Customer Retention, 3. Lead Generation.” – @nicole_kelly #smmw13

— Zane Riley (@zaneriley) April 8, 2013

There is no doubting that the Sales Lion is one of the best Dang Speakers there is…. and one of the funniest. Every sentence out of this man’s mouth was either a brilliant piece of advice about how to Build a Business Blog that generates leads and sales….or to Laugh-Out-Loud. Belly-Laugh Funny and crammed full of takeaways:

If you become the greatest listener in the world you’ll become the greatest blog content writer — @thesaleslion #smmw13

— Mike Ellis (@TheMikeEllis) April 8, 2013

Love being able to hear @thesaleslion while in the adjacent conference room. LOVE his energy! great speaker #SMMW13

— Lance Brown (@WTWH_SocialGuru) April 8, 2013

From @thesaleslion at #smmw13 : Content is the greatest sales and trust-building tool in the world. Period.

— Dave Woods (@godeedub) April 8, 2013

A revolutionary marketing strategy: Answer Customers’ Questions. — @thesaleslion #smmw13

— Mike Ellis (@TheMikeEllis) April 8, 2013

Carrie Kerpen (with Amy Myers and Amanda Sheldon) talked about creative ways to benefit from Facebook. And there were plenty of tweets to tell us all about it!

Care more. Listen more. Love more. Give more. #smmw

— carrie kerpen (@carriekerpen) April 8, 2013

“You have to love your community. They can feel it and sense it.” – Amanda Sheldon @ams9. #SMMW13 twitter.com/saralnelson/st…

— Sara N. (@saralnelson) April 8, 2013

“Love your community & be authentic” is what Amy Myers and Amanda Sheldon have learned abt having a community #SMMW13 @carriekerpen session.

— Jacqueline Landers (@JayEmElle) April 8, 2013

while resident songwriter and LinkedIn Expert, Stephanie Sammons shared her powerful tips for smart marketing on LinkedIn:

“Your LinkedIn profile is your digital equity” Stephanie Sammons #smmw13 twitter.com/SocialEdiquett…

— Mel Rom (@SocialEdiquette) April 8, 2013

And what a way to finish. With the sassy, smart, engaging, funny (yes very funny) and insightful Sally Hogshead. We were all in for a treat as we learned about what it is that makes us unique and fascinating – and how to be remembered for your message and unique style!

Awesome experience as @sallyhogshead coaxes someone to take Jagermeister shot #smmw13 twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner/…

— Michael A. Stelzner (@Mike_Stelzner) April 9, 2013

What makes you different is what makes people love you. – @sallyhogshead #smmw13

— Dave Kerpen (@DaveKerpen) April 9, 2013

Boring is the kiss of death. Stand out or don’t bother. The world doesn’t need another tweet, it needs value. – @sallyhogshead #SMMW13

— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) April 8, 2013

It’s not about the number of interactions you have, it’s about quality of your interactions says @sallyhogshead#smmw13

— Waynette Tubbs (@WaynetteTubbs) April 9, 2013

Great speaker @sallyhogshead “build a career that allows you to succeed” #smmw13 #fascinating twitter.com/CJRainville/st…

— Courtney Rainville (@CJRainville) April 9, 2013

And to finish it all off…..Brian Carter had the Tweet of the Day:

Twifubukone – the solution is all of our problems. Twitter inside of Facebook inside of a phone. Haha. @briancarter #SMMW13

— Jenn Lisak (@jlisak) April 8, 2013

And a bonus! Jason Keath from Social Fresh kindly shared the real Top Tweets of the day with us – not surprising Mari Smith was the winner!

Guess who had the most retweets today from the #smmw13 conference? Yup, @marismith =) twitter.com/socialfresh/st…

— Social Fresh (@socialfresh) April 9, 2013

Were you at Social Media Marketing World? What did you think? Be sure to click on the links on the Tweets above to follow the wonderful Peeps that took the time to share their takeaways. What was your favourite session, tweet, quote, takeaway? Leave it for us to share in the comments below!

In December, 2012, Instagram removed support for “Twitter Cards”.  This initially left Twitter users with just a cropped version of the original, beautiful Instagram image.  It seemed to be a new way of forcing Twitter users to click through to the web version of instagram in order to see the full image. It also meant that images no longer automatically posted to the Media Gallery on Twitter – a change from the easy integration that we were all so used to.  

Fortunately, along came  an easy workaround for the “issues” between Instagram and Twitter – It’s called If This Then That (or ITTT for those of you familiar with it!).

The workaround is super simple to set up and will mean that you can go on enjoying simple, clean integration between Instragram and Twitter, and:

• have your image show up right within the newsfeed using the view/hide function
• your image shows up in the media gallery so now you can scroll through images easily

An image shared directly from Instagram offers no option to “View photo” within Twitter – sharing via IFTTT does!

And the image is back where it is meant to be – posting to the Twitter newsfeed with ease!

Let’s keep this post short and useful. Here are two posts from Dave Kerpen at Likeable Media and Techcrunch explaining the workaround.  It involves setting up a “recipe” on the site If This Then That, which automatically posts your instagram image to Twitter, allowing Twitter followers to see it within the newsfeed and posts it to the image gallery.

If you have not yet signed up for a IFTTT account, then check out the posts above and do the following easy steps to get the recipe/workaround sorted.

• set up your IFTTT account.  
• Connect your Instagram and Twitter accounts (give permission)
• Create the recipe – as simple as copying this one (or follow the links in the posts above).
• set up your “tag” – the standard tag that you will enter into each instagram image to trigger the recipe.  I chose to use #twitter as it is something I will remember – but you can make it shorter (ie #tw) or use whatever tag you want!

Voila!  You are set up. Start adding your tag to your instagram photos and it will post to Twitter like this (as a native image with a card – ie your followers will be able to open the photo from within Instagram and see it in all of its awesome filtered glory)!  

Sorted.  

Do you post images to Twitter? Did you stop when the changes happened at the end of 2012?  If you are on Instagram, leave your Instagram name below so we can connect and follow you!  

This week’s featured infographic is from Melonie Dodaro at Top Dog Social Media.  It highlights the key actions you need to take now in order to bring your LinkedIn Profile up to speed and attract your target market.

Haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile lately? Not sure where to start? Then I highly recommend you start here. Melonie Dodaro has reduced all the many articles, tips, advice, how-to guides into one easy to follow graphic that really does provide the Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Makeover  (PS We are a little biased about this one, as our creative team helped to imagineer this infographic).  It’s one of our favourites. I have it firmly saved on to my desktop for future reference. It is definitely one to tag, bookmark and keep handy!

Infographic Breakdown:

There is lots to love about this infographic:

• It’s the perfect how-to - the image is the actual profile from Melonie’s LinkedIn account – so you can literally follow along as she shows you what to do when you update your profile.
• It is visual – although it does contain a lot of words (more than what is normally seen on an infographic), we created this infographic as an image of those words, such that the over-riding effect is to focus on the tips and not have to “read” the entire profile. It is a clever concept not seen much in infographics – a meta-guide or how-to that uses the subject as the image, with an overlay added.
• It is just a little bit cheeky. We love that here at Socially Sorted. Put simply, it Kicks-Ass!
• It achieves one of the two main guides of infographics:  give a how-to or inspire – in this case it has inspired me to get busy and update my profile.

Here it is:

Love this Infographic?

Please share with your networks and if you share this infographic on your blog, be sure to reference Melonie’s website and blog post at:  http://topdogsocialmedia.com/linkedin-marketing-infographic/. Want to find out more about LinkedIn from Melonie?  You can follow her blog at Top Dog Social Media.

Contact our team at Socially Sorted to talk to us about how we can work with your brand or blog to showcase a product, service or idea – by using infographics.  

Are you on LinkedIn?  Will you be updating your profile now?  Share your LinkedIn Profile address, so that we can connect, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/donnamoritz!

Information moves fast.  So when it comes to creating content, driving engagement and retrieving information… it can get overwhelming.

Here are 3 image tricks you can use on Facebook now to create, track and retrieve awesome content.  Better still it allows your followers to track and refer to your content too!

No-one can resist looking at a photo, right?  Then let’s jump in and look at how super-useful a photo or image can be on Facebook.  They are more than just a tool for driving engagement. Images are your friend when it comes to dealing with the overwhelming task of creating, tracking and keeping content that rocks! 

Why?

Because an image:

• has a unique URL.
  
• is engaging and easy to spot.
• keeps the conversation in one place (and remember – conversation breeds conversation and on Facebook comments and likes breed comments and likes).

1.  Rounding up the Troops

Are you in a Facebook Group? I am in quite a few of them. They range from a small 8-member group, right up to one with 6,500 members.  All have their purpose and allow for some amazing enagement, sharing, community, feedback and discussion.  I have blogged about the benefit of Facebook Groups before, so let’s just say that I love them.  When used well.

The problem with Groups is that they can get very big. Personally, I find really large groups overwhelming.  As an admin or a user, a simple image can help you to find and track information. Here are some examples:

Amy Porterfield uses an image in her group to encourage people to introduce themselves in a single location – in the thread under the image

In one of my groups, we encourage members to support each other and share, recommend or engage with each other’s businesses (where they feel comfortable to do so). How do we do it? With an image!

A little Ninja sharing is helped along with a brightly coloured Image….sorry I can’t show you more (secret “Group” business).

Somebody asks a great question in the group? I can highlight it for others and pin it to the top so everyone can join in!

Basically an image can provide the “location” for important content.  Anything that needs to be tracked is attached to an image.  As an added bonus, if I want to go back to a discussion from a year ago, I can find it through the image URL.  Keep a record of important engagement around images.  You can also easily scan through photos (because Images are highly recognisable, right) and find it that way.  

2.  Call Your Readers/Likers to Action

This one is great for your Business Page Facebook Wall. No words necessary – here is an example:

Add a call to action to an image…and you can always track the responses!

The list of ideas is endless with this one.  Encourage your followers to

• share something
• answer a question
• conduct a mini poll
• steer towards and click on a link to a landing page
• click on any website or link….use your imagination.  

But I really like using images for not only driving traffic but also to collect responses and encourage interaction. There are so many options – go for it!

3.  Host a Chat

One of the activities that we do with our clients (many of them public figures or Authors) is to host online Facebook Chats or Facebook Experiences.  They are loads of fun and can create huge engagement on a page.

• We use a photo to “anchor” the chat.  
• We announce the event and create buzz about it weeks during the week before it is hosted.
• We encourage fans/likers to “save the date” and time. The chats usually run for 1 hour.
• In the few hours leading up to the chat we announce that fans should watch out for the image announcing the chat on the page.
• We post up the image about an hour or two before the chat.  It has a welcome message and announces that it is the “anchor” for the chat.
• We start the chat under the image – if people get lost on the wall of the Facebook page, we simply post the link to the image to them and directions where to find it on the same wall.
• We routinely get upwards of 100 comments and 200-300+ likes on a chat.  Sometimes more.

Here is one we did with the lovely Kim Morrison from www.twenty8.com and Like Chocolate for Women.  We had a ball!  

Holding a chat on Facebook can be greatly enhanced with an image!

The best part?  Kim and her team not only had a great experience, their fans learned a lot AND they walked away with a direct link to valuable content – via an image.

 How did I create these images?  A mix of tools but although I love Photoshop, my right hand DIY image tool is www.picmonkey.com.  

Got any more image tips for Facebook? I would love to hear about them – share them below  in the comments!  

Heads are turned, posts are shared, communities engage and support is rallied! 

That is exactly what is happening around Australia at the moment, as finalist “host cities” from 4 States and 1 Terrority fight it out in a public crowdsourced, social-media fuelled battle to host the first ever Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT) on July 17-18 this year.

In this post we look at what SoMeT is, what is great about this project, and what this example of the innovative use of social media and crowdsourcing means for local tourism, business & social!

Why am I so interested?  Because I am speaking at this conference and can’t wait to find out just where, exactly, it will be!  (Update! Wollongong just won the Final and beat out Townsville in an epic battle of the Regional Centres!). But mostly because this is a perfect example of why crowdsourcing is  one of the biggest digital marketing trends gripping the world at the moment.

What is Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT)?

The Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT) …..pronounced So-Me-Tee… is a world-class conference designed to bring tourism marketing professionals together to share ideas, network and discover opportunities in social and digital media for destination marketing.  This premier conference originated in the States with previous conferences being run in places like Loudoun County, Virginia, Tunica, Mississippi and El Paso, Texas.

SoMoT is the brainchild of the creative team at Think! Social Media who have offices in Detroit, Sydney, Amsterdam and Vancouver.

SoMeT is coming to Australia for the 1st Time in July.

The Catch?  Nobody knows where, exactly, it will be held in Australia. Yet.

Destination Unknown!

The Final Four? 

Margaret River vs Townsville (midnight to midnight AEST)

and

Brisbane vs Wollongong (voting on Thursday – midnight to midnight AEST).

In an epic battle of the Regional Centres, I am pleased to announce that Wollongong did their city proud an hour ago, and showed how with heart and social media smarts, the smaller centres can beat out the big cities!  

SoMeT is designed by the community. The community decides where #SoMeT13AU will be.

The more formal definition of Crowdsourcing is the power of people collectively solving a solution to a problem by soliciting contributions from a large group of people – be it through obtaining needed services, ideas or information.  When you take that definition and add social media to the mix, it adds rocket fuel!

An article by Richard Spiegel in Social Media Examiner showcases the advantages of using Social Media Crowdsourcing. Richard outlines how Social media has changed the way that businesses engage with customers.  ”Fans and followers don’t want to be told, they want to discover”   He suggests that it is no longer a one-way (or even two-way) conversation, but a “multiplayer experience that relies on collective, thoughtful engagement”.

What does this mean?

By using tools at our disposal, brands and businesses can create social media campaigns that can achieve powerful results by harnessing the power of crowdsourcing.

The team at SoMeT have done exactly that.  They have harnessed the power of the people to make a decision – but not without first spreading the word by creating massive buzz and viral sharing on social media.

El Paso won the right to host SoMeT in the States last year (with over 78,000 votes). Who will be the winner of the 1st Australian Symposium? Townsville, Margaret River, Wollongong, or Brisbane.

“I think those of us working in Social/Digital Destination Marketing are a small but passionate group in Australia, so it’s great to come together to be a part of something like this”.    Holly is right.  And the fact that the set-up for such an innovative campaign has not resulted in huge costs for the agency, provides hope to many small businesses wishing to get the word out about an event or promotion.  If the message is good, and the tools simple to implement (in this case voting and sharing via a Facebook App) the community will the do the work for you!

6 Reasons why this is a great promotion?

It demonstrates the power of crowdsourcing and social media for:

1. Engaging Communities
2. Enabling businesses to Collaborate
3. Adding Buzz to an Event  (the delegates win by having a host city that is motivated, engaged, and involved)
4. Removing barriers to entry for smaller brands (or in this case allowing lesser known locations to participate).  
5. Engaging consumers with brands in an experiential way (not just online or in marketing material – they get to experience!).
6. Helping Consumers to become Brand Advocates by involving them

Interestingly it is the local destinations that are embracing social media and leading the way with voting.  Townsville, the Margaret River and Wollongong emerged as three out of four frontrunners with just a small percentage of the population of bigger centres like Melbourne and Brisbane.

One of the things I like about this promotion is that by leveraging the power of social media, smaller communities competed with larger ones (and won!) on the same playing field.

The tools are the same – it is just up to each region as to how they use them.   It is the Tourism Operators, Hotels, function centres that have really jumped on board with this on Facebook, posting and engaging regularly.

Think Social Media Executive Director, Rodney Payne, said that the diversity of destinations in the running to host SoMeT is a reflection of the growth and uptake of social media strategy Australia-wide. “Regional destinations are leading the votes with Townsville and Wollongong currently ranking one and two, Brisbane and Margaret River are not far behind.”  And that pattern continued till the end Rodney!  Wollongong blitzed it!  

What does this mean for your business or brand?

Harnessing the power of “the crowd” is easier than you think. You could run a survey to find out what your customers really want. Or run an app based competition where they get to be involved.  Whatever tool (or outcome) you choose, the key is connecting with your crowd via social media.

Want to chat or shout out about it?  Tweet or Facebook using this hashtag:  #SoMeT13AU

Interesting in attending SoMeT?

More information will be released soon, now that an actual host has been announced (Wollongong!).   Go here to find out more when tickets become available.  If you do come along, be sure to come and say hi.  I’ll be there!

By the way, this is not a sponsored post nor is the above link an affiliate link.  My reason for writing about this novel promotion is simply related to the awesomeness of the concept behind it (yes I am a huge fan of experiential marketing and crowdsourcing).  

Over to you. Did you vote?   Are you from Wollongong?  What other great examples have you seen where crowdsourcing works perfectly with social media to create buzz?