Last year I wrote about, “How to Blog when You Don’t Have Time.” This is one of the pressing challenges that marketers face in regards to creating content.

But another challenge – equally daunting – is “What do I blog about?” It’s something that practically every writer struggles with.

Copyblogger has answered this question in a remarkable way – with an infographic. Here it is, “22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue.” Enjoy!

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Over to you: What do you think about this infographic – both the visual elements and the ideas it represents? Please leave your comments in the box below.

When Pinterest was first launched in March 2010, it was widely regarded as a feminine space for sharing cute ideas such as recipes, crafts and home decor.

Today, it is the highest growth social network on the Internet! And it’s not just women who are pinning stuff! Well known brands such as Starbucks, University of Virginia, Dr. Oz, The Bone Marrow Foundation, Bissell and Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge are using Pinterest for content marketing.

Consider these compelling statistics.

Pinterest-ing Stats

• TechCrunch announced recently that Pinterest hit 11.7 million uniques per month, “crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history.”
• An average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site according to comScore. Remarkable considering the stats for other social giants: 2.5 hours onTumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook.
• Core users appear to be 18-34 year old upper income women, hailing from America’s heartland.

Advantages of Pinterest for hospitals

• Pinterest fits naturally when a brand has visually interesting elements (pictures or videos) tied to it. Hospitals could experiment with visual resources that point to healthy living, disease fighting foods, miracle stories, YouTube videos, health books, and other compelling content. Check out MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Pinterest profile.

MD Anderson Cancer Center has 7 boards on Pinterest

• Pinterest is generating more referral traffic to websites than YouTube, Reddit, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. Hospitals (which have traditionally lagged behind in social media) could benefit tremendously from social-media induced traffic. Images speak a thousand words and if users like the image, they’re able to double-click on it to proceed to the hospital’s website.

• Then there’s the size of Pinterest’s audience – almost 12 million unique visitors per month which has to be attractive to healthcare marketers.

• Also consider that those 12 million pairs of eyeballs belong to mostly upper-income women – the same ones who make the healthcare decisions in American households. That’s another compelling reason for hospitals to consider Pinterest.

Limitations of Pinterest for Hospitals

• The downside to all this is that hospitals that have invested a ton of time and resources developing other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare may find the challenge of managing a brand new social site to be quite daunting.

• Another limitation is that images pinned on Pinterest Boards can only go so far. Unless a user really likes the image and proceeds to click through to the source site, the hospital’s ability to communicate its message is lost.

• Pinterest was not originally designed for marketing purposes so there are no analytics features to measure a brand’s performance. This is a problem for hospitals whose resources are tight and where any additional marketing efforts must be well justified.

Quick Takeaway

Whether or not Pinterest has staying power remains to be seen. However because it is so radically different from other social sites, it does show a lot of potential and might turn out to be the picture powerhouse of social media. Hospitals should certainly keep an eye on it, and then make the best decision for themselves and their audiences.

Over to you: Do you think Pinterest is beneficial to hospitals? Why or why not? Please share your comments in the box below.

From what I’ve seen in the past, medical facilities aren’t known for their social media prowess. In fact healthcare organizations are lagging behind when it comes to adaptation of social media content.

So when you come across a facility such as UAB Medicine (Birmingham, Alabama) that has not only fully embraced social media, but is actually a stellar example of social media done right, it’s time to take a closer look and investigate how they have become so successful!

UAB invites visitors to join their social media communities

The fact that they also have a social media commenting policy (below the fold) in which the rules of engagement are clearly stated is awesome because it supports, protects and enhances high-quality engagement.

UAB Website

Generally speaking, website content should do two things – engage visitors and/or convert them into customers! I love that the question, ‘What would you like to do today?’ is the first thing you see above the fold on their home page.

This does a couple of things: It pulls the visitor into the website encouraging them to answer the question (and thereby digging deeper into the website), and it keeps things relevant because a visitor will proceed to the exact page that he or she is searching for and that means little chance of bouncing around from page to page.

[Caution: UAB should be careful to ensure that there are no broken links on their site as this could easily undermine their credibility with Internet savvy patients].

UAB Blog

UAB Medicine has a blog called ‘Your Fight Cancer Blog‘ which resides in a different domain from the main site. We’ve seen that having a blog residing within the organization’s website is good for SEO since search engines tend to favor web pages that are frequently updated.

However UAB has a very dynamic blog that contains interesting articles, videos, recipes for cancer patients and other compelling content. The blog is updated about twice a week, receives occassional comments, and  is integrated to their social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and Google+). The articles on the blog are extremely valuable and usually end with a strong call to action that should steer readers back to the original website.

UAB Facebook

UAB has an engaged community of over 5,500 Facebook fans. A quick look at their Wall shows that they post mostly educational content, some pictures, and stories about how they’ve been able to help patients at their hospital.

Most of their content is ‘Liked’ but lively discussions happen when they post something about the UAB Women and Infants Services. It’s not a surprise that this topic generates more engagement since Facebook is known to be a mostly female environment.

UAB Twitter

On Twitter where they have over 2,200 followers UAB is focused on educational content, webinars and video. Their Twitter page doesn’t show a lot of engagement with followers but it does indicate that they update their page often with useful information that is being re-tweeted by their followers.

UAB YouTube

UAB’s YouTube channel is perhaps their most impressive social network as far as engagement and appeal. They have 248 subscribers and some of their videos have been viewed thousands of times! The video quality is stunning, the stories are compelling and subscribers are responding with positive comments and discussions.

Well done UAB!

UAB’s social media content is really a breath of fresh air. They appear to have a solid social media content strategy that demonstrates thought leadership, relevance, clarity, and engagement particularly in their YouTube and Blog channels. Their Twitter and Facebook networks could benefit from more conversational discussions and there shouldn’t be broken links on their website at any time. It might be helpful if UAB performed a content analysis of their site from time to time especially since they update their content regularly.

Over to you: What do you think of UAB’s social media strategy based on this brief evaluation? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

A  lot of people think of content marketing as a ‘new thing’. But the fact is content marketing has actually been around for almost a century.

Back in 1931 John Deere created ‘The Furrow’ magazine, to educate farmers on new technology and how it could help them become more successful. This publication is now widely accepted as being the first example of corporate story-telling (content marketing).

John Deere's 'The Furrow' magazine (1931) - first example of content marketing

Today all brands have become publishers and are creating content in one form or another (the barriers to corporate publishing are gone). The only difference between traditional media publishers and non-media publishers is how the money comes in:

For a media publishing brand, content is created in order to make money either through direct selling of content (e.g. newspapers and magazines) or advertising sales. But for a non-media publishing brand, content is created to attract and retain customers.

In this exciting piece, Joe Pulizzi (founder of Content Marketing Institute) illustrates how far we’ve come from the days of John Deere to today and how we (non-media publishing brands) can tackle the monumental challenge of creating compelling content that actually engages our audiences. Read the full article here.

A recent survey conducted by Medical Marketing Services Inc. (MMS) the industry leader in providing email marketing services to healthcare professionals, found that 94% of physicians prefer to learn about social media and new apps via email.

94% of physicians use email to learn about social media

The survey was conducted in February 2012 and the results presented at the ePharma Summit in New York on February 6th.

Here’s a summary of the key findings of the survey:

#1. Huge interest in email

94% of physicians still look to the email inbox as their favorite place to learn about social media and new mobile apps.

#2. Overwhelming use of PC’s/Laptops

Almost 71% (three-quarters) of physicians surveyed read their email on PC’s and laptops compared to only 29% who read email on their mobile devices. Even though email content should be mobile optimized it appears that physicians do not depend on their smart phones for email consumption.

#3. Afternoons, best time to read email

Most physicians read their email in the afternoon. About 37% read their email after 6pm and only 33% read their email before 9am. The trend in email reading times should give healthcare marketers are clue regarding send time optimization.

#4.  50-50 preference for HTML vs plain text

Half the doctors surveyed prefer HTML emails and half of them prefer plain text emails. Again, healthcare marketers should use both versions when communicating with physicians.

#5. More doctors on Facebook than Twitter

When it comes to social media, 36% of physicians use Facebook professionally, while only 5% use Twitter professionally.

#6. Rx Guides most sought after smart-phone service

32% of physicians prefer Rx Guides as the smartphone service of choice, while 21% prefer drug samples.  Only 9% of physicians want eDetails on their smart phones.

#7. Apple devices most popular with physicians

While most doctors download medical apps on their smart phones, Apple devices (iPhones and iPads) are the most popular platforms amongst physicians.

Key Takeaway

Physicians have a very high interest in email communication, so much so that they don’t want to be rushed through it. Their inclination towards afternoon consumption of email via PC’s or laptops, is a good indicator that they are setting aside precious time to focus on email communication and are doing so in a more leisurely fashion. Healthcare marketers have a great opportunity to get physicians to focus on their email content if it:

• is sent at the right time
• includes both HTML and plain text versions
• includes information about Apple-compatible apps
• includes social media and particularly Facebook information

What are your thoughts? How do you see email impacting communication between physicians and healthcare marketers? Please leave your comment in the box below.

Are you a medical practitioner, a healthcare provider or healthcare organization? Has your website traffic declined and you’re wondering how to reverse the trend?

Reverse the trend of declining website visibility

In most cases, your website is the hub of your business. It’s where YOU turn leads into prospects and then into customers! These days, consumers want to see relevant content that pulls them in by solving their problems and making their lives easier.

Here are some ways you can do that on your healthcare website:

#1. Provide useful medical content

Start by providing simple solutions to common ailments on your blog. Provide easy instructions that can be easily understood and enable comments so that visitors can ask questions.

Never use your blog as a self-promotion tool. You want your visitors to trust you with their problems. This will not happen if you push marketing messages down their throats! Gradually visitors will regard you as a trusted source of expertise and will rely on you for health advice. A good example is WebMD.

#2. Connect your blog with your website

The lines between a website and a blog have gotten very fuzzy. But in the healthcare industry, it’s not unusual to see a ‘corporate’ website and blog residing in two seperate domains.

While legitimate concerns about privacy, control of content and other legal pitfalls motivate this strategy, it will seriously hurt your website’s search engine visibility by diverting traffic to the blog, which is where more dynamic content resides.

However, if having the blog reside within your corporate website is not an option, you may want to consider improving the visibility of your site by providing ‘teaser content’ from your blog on your homepage. Mayo Clinic has 8 blogs residing within their ‘corporate’ website.

#3. Embed videos on your website

YouTube videos are not only a way of ‘humanizing‘ your healthcare content, they’re also an engaging way to provide useful health tips, give advice and show how your patients benefit from your services.

Showing how other patients (third-party testimonials) have benefited from your services is a very effective way of increasing your conversion rates. Dr. Howard J. Luks (Chief of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy at Westchester Medical Center) does a great job using video to talk to his audience and humanize his healthcare brand.

#4. Add your presentations to your site

If you’ve done some public speaking and have used slides for your presentations, then consider adding them to your website.

All you need to do is to open an account with SlideShare, upload your slides, and then SlideShare will direct you on how to embed them into your website. This provides an interactive experience for your visitors and gives them a different format (non-text) to consume your content.

#5. Add social media buttons to your home page

Re-tweet buttons and Facebook Like buttons can be added to any page on your website, including your homepage.

The idea is to extend the reach of your content and to spread it as far and wide as possible. Apart from content sharing, social media buttons also give your visitors an opportunity to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ thus keeping the lines of communication open long after they have left your site. Kaya Skin Clinic is a good example of a healthcare brand using social media to actively engage their audience in interesting conversations.

Over to you: There are many other ways to increase your healthcare website’s visibility. What methods are you using? Please share in the comment box below.

The story is told of a man who went out fishing. One day a friend stopped by and observed that the man who was fishing was catching a lot of fish.

But the strange thing was that he would only keep the smaller fish and throw the larger fish back into the water.

Confused by his approach, the friend asked the fisherman, “Why do you throw the big fish back into the water?”

And the fisherman replied, “Because I only have an 8-inch frying pan.”

How big is your content 'frying pan'?

How big is your content marketing mindset (frying pan)? A big content mindset means always being on the look out for content possibilities. It means preparing for and expecting content ideas to happen in the ordinary course of the day.

How to prepare for a big content mindset

• Keep a notebook or a voice recorder – every time you have a great idea for a list post, a how-to article or a short video, you can record the idea immediately and brainstorm it later.

• Carry your camera or iPhone at all times – how many times have you been at an event, and something cool happened and you wished you had your camera to record it. You never know when a share-worthy moment might happen. So be prepared to capture cool things as they happen so that you can turn them into useful content later on.

• Motivate and engage executives to get involved in the content creation process. Earlier this week I had a conversation with a prospect who asked me this question, “How can I get our CEO involved in all of this…I have a feeling we should be getting him involved.” (speaking of their social media content strategy). If your boss is involved in the content process, he’ll be less likely to reject it. Ask him if he would be interested in creating a 5-minute video during the next golf outing, product launch or Holiday party.

• Talk to your team – look for anyone and everyone in your team who is able to provide insights and inspiration for new content ideas. Make it fun and rewarding for them so that their levels of creativity are enhanced.

Key Takeaway

Remember, a big content mindset starts with the front-line activities i.e. the little, routine things that tend to go un-noticed but present huge content possibilities. Like the fisherman, it is easy to throw away big content opportunities simply because we’re not prepared to capture them!

Over to you: Do you have a big content mindset? What kind of front-line activities are you involved in right now?

As of October 2011, there were 1,229 hospitals across the US using social media i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and blogs (Source: http://ebennett.org/hsnl/)

Some of them don’t appear to be serious at all – in fact I question their commitment to the healthcare social media conversation and wonder if it’s just a ‘feel good, let’s be cool’ type of thing.

But Dekalb Medical is not among them. This is one of the few organizations that are sincerely embracing new media in order to connect with the people they serve. Sure, they still have much to learn, but it is clear that they’re making a genuine effort to engage their audiences in interesting ways.

Dekalb is stunning on Facebook

Dekalb has a small Facebook page with 509 fans. But everyone knows that big fan numbers don’t mean that the page is healthy. The ‘people talking about‘ is the statistic to watch if you want to know how well a Facebook page is interacting with people.

Dekalb Medical has a very healthy interaction rate on Facebook

For an accurate picture take the ‘people talking about this’ number and divide by the total number of fans. A healthy Facebook page should have at least 1% – 5% (or more for greater interaction) - (Source: Social Media Examiner). At the time of this writing Dekalb’s Facebook page had 78 people talking about them to give them a 15% interaction rate! That’s one of the highest numbers I’ve seen on any Facebook page, let alone a healthcare organization – stunning performance!

Dekalb on YouTube

Of all the social media channels out there, I think YouTube is perfect for hospitals because it allows them to tell powerful stories from different perspectives, and to influence the general sentiment of their audience. So it’s always great to see the hospitals that ‘get it’ and are taking advantage of this popular platform to reach their communities.

Dekalb is using YouTube to tell engaging patient stories of battles won, challenges overcome, and lives restored.

Dekalb on Twitter

As of this writing, the Twitter button on Dekalb’s website was not linked to their Twitter account. I had to do a search of ‘dekalb medical’ on Twitter.com to find their profile. This is a quick and easy fix and there’s no reason why the two (website and Twitter account) shouldn’t be integrated. In this case, Dekalb is missing an opportunity to connect with a potentially huge Twitter audience.

Dekalb on Flickr

They have almost 400 pictures on Flickr illustrating different themes, moods and sentiments in their organization e.g. holiday parties, a ribbon cutting ceremony, several medical events, a re-union dinner, their 50th anniversary celebration and many more.

I think Dekalb has a very strong and appealing Flickr profile that speaks volumes about the kind of atmosphere one can expect to find at their facilities – dedicated, hardworking, professional, progressive, diverse, friendly and fun-loving! Pictures are an excellent way to showcase the brand essence of an organization.

Dekalb blog

Dekalb Medical does not have a blog on their website. I did a Google search for ‘dekalb medical blog’ and found  that their CEO started a blog (or newsletter – it’s hard to tell) back in March 2011.

Dekalb Medical's blog resides outside their website

They have the right intentions but the problem is that this blog resides outside the Dekalb Medical website and there’s no apparent integration (or connection) between the two. The way I was able to make the connection was of course the obvious reference to Dekalb Medical, and the logo on the corner of the blog. A blog should always be part of your organization’s website so that your audience is attracted to the hub of your business rather than driving them away from your site.

Key Takeaways

Dekalb Medical is showing a praiseworthy effort to join the online conversation and attract patient communities through their social media content.

• They have a healthy Facebook page with impressive interaction levels
• They’re on Twitter although they need to integrate their profile with their website
• They have some stunning illustrations of the Dekalb Medical atmoshphere on Flickr
• They have started a blog but could use a solid content strategy to improve results

There’s a lesson here for other healthcare organizations thinking about social media. You don’t have to wait until you’ve figured it all out, you just have to start. In doing so, you establish your online presence, start making connections, solving problems and making a positive impact in people’s lives.

Over to you: Has your organization established an online presence yet? How are you tapping into the social media conversation like Dekalb Medical is? Please share your thoughts below.

“We’re not going to sit around as you drag your feet on the issue of healthcare social media content,” is what the DHC (Digital Health Coalition) appears to be telling the FDA.

Tired of waiting for the government agency to provide much-needed and long-awaited social media guidance to healthcare digital marketers, DHC (a group of 60 drug and digital health industry organizations led by Marc Brad, formerly of Manhattan Research) – have taken it upon themselves to get the job done.

DHC issues much-needed healthcare social media guidelines

In a meeting that took place in NYC on February 6, 2012 the group which includes big pharma names such as Merck, Roche, AstraZeneca, Lilly, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, along with partnering agencies, Edelman and Digitas Health issued 7 Social Guiding Principles for digital healthcare marketers:

#1. Participate in Social Media

Regulated healthcare companies should endeavor to participate in social media as a means to promote public health, improve patient outcomes and facilitate productive patient-doctor relationships.

#2. Regulated companies not responsible for user-generated content

Regulated healthcare companies are not responsible for user-generated content online that they do not control. Regulated healthcare companies are deemed to “control” health and medical content if:

• it owns such health and medical content and has material editorial authority or
• it paid for the creation of such content and has material editorial authority over such content.

#3. Adverse events reporting guidelines

Regulated healthcare companies have a responsibility to report adverse events they become aware of. Regulated healthcare companies should follow the existing adverse event reporting rules in place at the FDA.

#4. Employee disclosure

Employees of regulated healthcare companies should disclose their material company relationship when posting comments/content or engaging in an online conversation relating to a company product or relevant healthcare issue.

#5. Timely communication response

Regulated healthcare companies should endeavor to respond to questions on sites they control within a reasonable period of time, and to implement reasonable measures to enable timely responses to crisis and emergency situations.

#6. Correct misinformation

Regulated healthcare companies should endeavor to make reasonable efforts to correct misinformation that is factually incorrect.

#7. Represent best interests of online patients

Regulated healthcare companies should endeavor to appoint employee(s) tasked with the role of “patient liaison” focused on representing the best interests of the patient online.

Key Takeaway

The idea behind this initiative was to get the conversation started about how the healthcare industry can evolve in the area of social media content. But it’s also a bold and admirable way of telling the government, “It’s not your job to tell us how to use social media to market our products.”

Given the feeble and failed attempt that the FDA made last December to respond to this issue, I believe DHC has positioned themselves as the guiding force in this important discussion.

What do you think: Will these guidelines issued by DHC change the conversations about healthcare social media or will the FDA have their say on the matter?

**This book review was first published on Social Media Examiner on January 19th, 2012.

If you’ve ever asked the question, “Can I make money with social media?“, you might have heard a variety of answers such as, “No!”, “Maybe” or “It depends.”

Rarely (if at all) have you heard the confident and unwavering response, “Yes, you can!”

In their book, How to Make Money with Social Media—An Insider’s Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business, Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah explain that there’s a big difference between people who make money with social media and people who don’t.

People who fail to make money with social media are those who never get their planoff the ground. They’re the ones who (among other things):

• Don’t know how to set up a landing page
• Don’t remarket to “customer prospects”
• Don’t know how to turn a social media campaign into a sales campaign
• Think they can do social media in ten minutes a day
• Sit on the sidelines
• And other faux pas

But people who make money are different. They set objectives, create a plan and execute the plan relentlessly.

And that’s what this book is all about—The Plan. You’ve heard the old adage, “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” Well it’s true. And to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you, the authors provide a thorough, “no-wiggle-room” roadmap that willput you on the path to social media success.

Here’s what you should know about the book.

Authors’ Purpose

The goal of the authors is to teach you some innovative ways of using social media, in order to generate real revenue and profits for you and your company.

In this book, Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah explain that by following “the roadmap,” you can use social media effectively to grow your business and make money as well.

So whether you’re a small business owner, a regular business-to-business company or you run a huge division at a large global organization, the authors provide a practical plan to help you set up, launch and run a money-making social media campaign that will work specifically for you.

What to Expect

How to make money with social media

At 275 pages, this book is not meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting. It’s much too extensive for that. Fortunately it’s an easy read, has many interesting examples and lots of bullet points, and is therefore very skimmable.

The book starts with a brief history lesson on what advertising and marketing looked like before the Internet. It goes on to talk about how things have changed and where social media is going to take us in the future.

But the core of the book is literally a roadmap that starts by laying the groundwork for success, and on to measuring the only really important thing – money!

Also notable, toward the end of the book is a checklist of 59 things you need to doon your way to a successful social media campaign.

Some of the more interesting ideas that the authors introduce are:

1. How to tell if your brand is a social media magnet
2. How to use circular momentum to build your brand
3. How to conduct a social media competitive assessment
4. How to build new relationships with customers using augmented reality
5. How to use different social media platforms to network, promote and share(they’re not the same!): Facebook is like a pub, LinkedIn is like a trade show,Twitter is like a cocktail party, YouTube is like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, MySpace is like Woodstock, and perhaps in their next edition, the authors will give us an analogy for Google+.

Key Highlights

For the most part, this book is rather elementary. But don’t write it off altogether, even if you’re a social media pro. There’s still a good chance that you might learn one or two cool things such as:

#1: How to Tell if Your Brand is a Social Media Magnet

A social media magnet is a brand that people want to be associated with. Big brands such as Nike, Apple and Harley-Davidson have no problem there.

The first step to acquiring social media magnetism is to use traditional media to drive people to your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn pages.

This Smirnoff ad prompts viewers to check out their Facebook page.

If you’re a small and underfunded brand, you’ll probably lean heavily on word-of-mouth marketing to promote your social media profiles.

The authors suggest that you ask yourself the following questions to figure out if your brand is a social media magnet:

• Do people wear your logo on their sweatshirts?
• Do people put bumper stickers with your logo on their cars?
• Do people wear hats with your logo on them?

Obviously the vast majority of small business brands will answer “no” to most, if not all three, questions and the authors know this.

Their intention in asking these “trick questions” is not to shame you or make you feel like a loser, but to make the case that social media is about running a successful business, not about being social. They want you to know that by applying the lessons you learn from their book, you too will be on your way to running a successful business.

#2: How to Think About Social Media

Some people use social media platforms as if they were all exactly the same. What they need to know is that each platform is different and should be approached in a completely unique way.

Facebook is a casual space (like a pub), LinkedIn is a space where you talk strictly business (tradeshow), Twitter is a noisy place where you share helpful links to position you as an expert (cocktail party), YouTube is packed with people clamoring for attention (Times Square on New Year’s Eve) and MySpace… well, that’s history unless you’re a musician.

On LinkedIn, it’s important to focus on networking and to carry out professional conversations.

Your job is to review the parallels among these platforms and their analogies(i.e., pub, cocktail party, tradeshow and so forth), and share those parallels with people in your office so that they can get comfortable and figure out how to use each individual platform. Visit other people’s social media pages to see what they’re doing on their various platforms.

Also when reviewing the different platforms, keep in mind that some of them help you to network (LinkedIn), others help you to promote your brand (Facebook) and others help you to share content (Twitter and YouTube).

#3: How to Create Circular Momentum

Turner and Shah suggest that we’re all connected through six degrees of separation.

What that means in business parlance is that your product is linked to a lot more people than those who’ve had direct contact with it. So if people have had a negative experience with your brand, then word will get out very, very fast! This is calledcircular momentum.

Now, if you can create positive experiences for people using your social media channels, you’ll be able to leverage circular momentum to bring about a great outcome.

Equifax, for example, is a very conservative company. They realized the benefit in allowing fans to vent their frustrations on their Facebook page. After they vent, customers feel much better and Equifax then uses this opportunity to provide support and encouragement. As a result, their customer retention rates have improved by a huge margin, thus justifying their social media efforts.

#4: How to Use Augmented Reality to Generate Business Leads

Augmented reality (AR) is a phrase used to describe a direct or indirect view of the physical, real-world environment through a computer-generated sensory experience. Companies can use AR technology to build new relationships with customers and to persuade prospects.

Side note: You might have experimented with some AR apps on your iPhone; e.g., WorkSnug to identify nearby wi-fi hotspots, DishPointer if you’re into cabling and CarFinder if you can’t remember where you parked the car!

Businesses are also using AR in very interesting and innovative ways. IKEA in Germany for example uses AR to get prospects to try out new furniture right from their homes. Prospects can simply aim their web cam at the current furniture in their living room to see a stylish new piece of IKEA furniture superimposed over their old couch! Just think of how often you could virtually redecorate your house!

This video clip shows how IKEA uses augmented reality to get more customers:

#5: How to Conduct a Social Media Competitive Assessment for Your Business

You’re already familiar with how competition in business works. In the last few years, for example, we’ve seen Amazon grab the lion’s share of the book market, as Barnes & Noble and Borders battled each other for physical retail dominance. What they didn’t realize is that competitive shortsightedness can actually render a business extinct, as Borders later found out.

Today your competition is not just your direct competition, it is actually anyone who competes for your customers’ disposable income—more so now because of social media and the universal competition for consumers’ attention.

This makes social media competitive assessment very challenging.

At the very least, you want to figure out how your competitors are using social media so that you can analyze how to compete against them.

However, you might also want to deliberately place yourself on the competitive grid as far away from them as possible. So if your nearest competitor has hired a specialist to manage his social media networks on a frequent basis, you might decide that you’re only interested in a few channels, say only blogs, and that you will be relentless in that one area.

Personal Impressions

I don’t like the title, How to Make Money with Social Media. It sounds like a scam, and in any case the book doesn’t live up to it. However, the subtitle, An Insider’s Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business, is a lot more accurate.

I also thought the book was rather elementary. Save for a few novel ideas, it might not be very interesting to the experienced social media marketer. Also, most case studies used are big-name companies. Small businesses will have a tough time relating with Coca Cola, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, IKEA, Colgate Palmolive and other industry giants.

That said, if there’s one social media book that executives and senior managers should read, it is this one. I believe they will be drawn to its interpretation of social media from a commercial perspective, and how social media activities tie to the bottom line.

This book serves as an important reminder that social media is only a means to an end to generate value for your organization. Ultimately you want to set up a social media campaign that is designed to make money. Everything else is just a stop along the way.

Social Media Examiner gives the book a 3.0 star rating.