The below post was contributed by my social media strategy consulting client Herbalife. I received no money for publishing it but would like to share their experiences of creating a new social media community for sports fans and what can be learned from it with my readers. Sports are one of the great shared human experiences. Since the javelin throwing contests of the ancient Pharaohs and the first Olympics in Athens, athletics have been core to our social DNA. Marketers understand this. They know their relationships with teams and players have unmatched power to build a brand, promote products and …
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Over the last few years blogging has become a recognized marketing tool as a component of a social media strategy. While businesses used to scratch their head as to why they should be fiddling with something that was originally created for individuals, B2B marketing professionals should now realize that a blog can and should play a central role in their content marketing efforts as well as provide the foundation for their social media engagement. B2B blogs are not only showing up within the websites of more companies, they are providing real and measurable success for those that are doing it …
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Today’s blog post is from a guest and is about the importance of content, a topic that I have touched upon recently in posts such as the importance of everyone’s content on Twitter, and its value not only as part of your social media marketing, but also how it positively affects your relationship building as well as SEO efforts.
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Content curation? Every time I consult with businesses on social media strategy, the theme of content curation always comes up. I already wrote about why everyone’s content is king on Twitter, because for companies to be considered true resources of information, they need to be sharing content that isn’t always written by themselves. This is why the role of a Content Czar in social media marketing is so important. On a professional level, whenever we are sharing a link of resourceful content on Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Facebook, we are playing the role of content curator without knowing it.
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As businesses embark on a social media strategy, I am finding that social strategy is being owned either by the Corporate Communications or Marketing Department. If you are one of the few companies that already have a Social Media Department, congratulations! If not, keep reading, because the advice is applicable to whoever is in charge of social at your company as well, regardless of department. Social media is only going to become more important for companies to engage in moving forward, but the question then becomes how is your company going to engage with the public on social websites? Sure, …
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When I wrote my LinkedIn book back in 2009, I had two detailed chapters on how you can embed a video into your profile using two different applications that LinkedIn provides. What is interesting is that, for the casual LinkedIn user, there are no “video” profile sections nor applications to choose from in the main menu, but both Google Presentation and SlideShare Presentations have always supported video. This tutorial will cover the easiest way to get a video up on your profile, which I have chosen Google Presentation for. Assuming that you already have a video of yourself, the entire …
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Blogs are awesome. I assume you agree with this because you’re reading my blog as well. A lot of you may have started becoming avid readers and to follow blogs, like myself, with the advent of social media. In the last two years I have seen some social media blogs become famous while others, despite still publishing great content, haven’t gotten the recognition that they deserve. I always engage in debates with other bloggers as to why some get more popular than others, but I’ll leave that topic for another blog post… If you’re looking for new voices to follow …
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Since Facebook is where Americans spend more time than anywhere else on the Internet, our needs as social media marketers as well as professionals to stay on top of the latest trends in 2010 regarding the social media gorilla are as important as ever. While I limited my similar top blog posts on Twitter and LinkedIn to 20, so many people had so much resourceful information to provide on FB that I felt the need to expand this blog post to include the top 30 most useful articles this year. Because Facebook gives anyone the ability to create a mini-web …
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I had a chance this week to speak at an event in front of several different local Orange County nonprofit organizations. While nonprofits are beginning to understand the potential for social media engagement, my sense during the meeting was that efforts seemed to be centered around Facebook for the objective of merely gaining awareness for their organization in the community. While utilizing Facebook to help in raising awareness for a nonprofit and its cause is a necessity to any social media strategy for nonprofits, there are many other things that nonprofits can be using social media for. Similarly, there are …
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As I consult with more clients on social media strategy, I am always amazed after I do a competitive analysis to find out that most American companies that I run across don’t seem like they know what they are doing on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. I’m not talking about the big consumer brands like Starbucks and Coca Cola that have gathered lots of Facebook Fans and are truly engaging with their customers. I’m talking about most B2B companies as well as those B2C brands that don’t necessarily fall into the Fortune 500. According to Hubspot, 72% of businesses have …
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