Guerrilla Social Media Marketing: Engagement is Key…Simple Enough?

By Laura Thomas, Intern at Australian Businesswomen’s Network

Do you think of yourself as a Guerrilla Marketer? During the 3 August BOOKED for Lunch webinar, Guerrilla Social Media Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson expanded on how social media is changing the game of guerrilla marketing, how to measure your return on investment of social media and four important weapons for social media marketers.

Over the years, guerrilla marketing tactics have changed and evolved. Television was the beginning of guerrilla marketing tactics, then came the Internet, and now social media. Guerrilla marketing tools work at an accelerated pace with social media. Two very strong concepts for using social media as a tool for guerrilla marketing are patience and imagination. Without both, companies will find their results from using social media are disappointing.

Most people believe social media guerrilla marketing is mostly about marketing, but those people are wrong. 90% of social media marketing is about listening and engaging with the community, while the other 10% is about actual marketing. Social media marketers are leaders that know how to build a community.

Do you want to measure your return on investment (ROI) of social media to make sure it is worth all the time and energy spent on it? To begin, start by looking at the number of hours put into social media tools. A tool that can help you measure the effectiveness of social media tools is Google Analytics. Of course, any ROI can only be identified in time (it takes 18 months on average to measure ROI), so be patient. If you have been consistently engaged with the community, you should have nothing to worry about.

If you are completely lost about where to start, Guerrilla Social Media Marketing, by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson, has an equation for measuring the return on investment of social media.

Social media marketers need to remember and use four important weapons:

1. Information – understanding guerrilla tactics for yourself and your competitors is crucial.
2. Imagination – you have to stand out to be recognised. Remember: if you sound like everyone else, you’re not a leader.
3. Innovation – realising how to market better and more efficiently is the key to cutting costs.
4. Community – (MOST IMPORTANT) engaging the community is vital because they are the ones who build up your brand.

I have given you a very brief (and I’m not exaggerating when I say brief) overview of the wonderful advice from Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson. To listen to the whole recording from 3 August BOOKED for Lunch, click here.

See Jay Conrad Levinson LIVE in Australia!

Jay Conrad Levinson joins a team of international marketing legends at the Wealth from Marketing event in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in September. Presented by Universal Events, this one-day program is valued at $597, but yours is free: http://www.wealthfrommarketing.com.au/?af=CLS1043088

MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY LAURA THOMAS

• Preparing For the “Real World” of Working

Guerrilla Marketing + Social Media = Amazing Results

How do you apply the time-proven strategies of guerrilla marketing to the new media landscape? How do you measure your social media results? Why should you social media be part of an integrated plan, and just how DO you put together a social media plan that is true guerilla-style, and produces results.

Today at 12.00pm AEST Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing and his co author Shane Gibson are my guests on BOOKED for Lunch. BOOKED for Lunch are free lunch-time webinars with the world’s leading business book authors and thinkers.

During the webinar we’ll look at how to apply social media in an innovative, guerrilla fashion, to target and listen to what the author calls “nano-tribes” and communities.

We’ll also look at the often-asked question – of how do you measure the ROI of your Social Media.

“Guerrilla Marketing is about achieving conventional goals using unconventional methods. Today, more than any other time in history we have an almost limitless arsenal of free to nearly free marketing tools at our fingertips. These tools are the new media marketing tools called social media.” - Jay Conrad Levinson

I’m very excited about this webinar. The subjects (guerrilla marketing and social media) are personal favourites, passions, in fact.

Plus I’ve been a big fan Jay Conrad Levinson’s work for many, many years.

Join me today at 12.00pm AEST for BOOKED for Lunch. You can register on our website.

BOOKED for Lunch is brought to you by Citrix GotoWebinar and the Australian Businesswomen’s Neteotk.

Social Media Strategy – My tips from CEBIT

Last week I presented on a panel for CEBIT,  the leading business event in the Asia Pacific region for Information and Communications Technology driving business strategy.

I’d prepared some key points to share with those attending.  (My summarised notes below).

In the last month I’ve spoken to groups for AIM (Australian Institute of Management), FILEX (the national fitness industry conference), to an in-house team of 60 marketers for one of our big communications companies and, last week, at CEBIT.

While I enjoy these presentations and am always excited to share from my experience what works when it comes to social media, I get frustrated by some of the questions I get.

For example:

• How much time should I spend on social media?
• What can I expect my ROI to be?
• Does this Social Media stuff really work?

To me, these questions are like asking:

How much time should I spend on customer service or on communication with clients?

or

How much can I expect to make if I get into conversation with my clients and make them really happy?

What I’m hearing beneath the subtext of these questions is “I realise the world had changed but do I really have to change what I’m doing and get on board with the new world of business? If I just keep questioning social media’s validity maybe it’ll all ‘blow over’ and I won’t have to have been a part of this fad.”

To me, Social Media is not a marketing trick or magic formula. And, it’s definitely not a fad. It’s a way of doing business that allows you the incomparable opportunity to be a part of your customers lives like you’ve never been before.

Here are some notes here to explain my scribbles.
1. @suzidafnis – That’s me on Twitter. I attended SXSW in March and it was fun and interesting to hear people introduce themselves not as Polly Smith from TooHotShoes but as @toohotshoes … (In fact I wrote a post about this recently). So, that’s me @suzidafnis.

2. My take on Social Media is that it’s not a marketing strategy or tool (though of course it can and should be used to market your business and you), it is a WAY of doing business. And, while the tools and platforms may change, the ability for customers to interact with us and to be more intimately connected to our businesses is an incredible opportunity that social media presents.

3. In the last few weeks I’ve given numerous presentations on Social Media to groups of small-business owners as well as large corporations. Regardless of the size of business there is power in having a social media strategy and a clear understanding of how your clients are using social media tools, and what the opportunities are for you and your business.

4. Social Media strategy, like business strategy, starts not with the tactics or tools, but with the overarching business goals. The tools change (and they change pretty quickly) so get your strategy ‘nailed’ and then choose how you will execute and what tools will support that execution.

5. The Australian Businesswomen’s Network is used as a case study of a small business using social media.

Since 2006 we have used may social media tools (blogs, wikis, webinars, audio, video, bookmarking, Flickr, YouTube, social networks). Our goal: to reach our wide-spread community (including those in rural and country areas) and to be provide them with education and resources using these tools.

Like many small businesses we have limited resources and social media has allowed us to reach farther/do more than traditional media.

6. Key things to Consider when designing your Social Media Strategy

i) Listen and keep listening

Before you launch into a social media plan it’s worth spending time researching what your clients and prospects are saying about you, about your business, about your industry,  your competitor. What problems are they encountering that you can solve? Listening will help you determine your strategy – but continued listening will keep you engaged and on top of what your audience wants and needs

ii) Talk
It’s easy to talk at customers. We’ve been doing it for years with traditional marketing. But talking with intention to really solve their problems, to answering the questions that you discover in the listening stage – is what I refer to here as ‘talk’

iii) Be part of your community
Again, traditionally we were quite separate from our customers – they lived in their world and we in our world. With social media I can be as close as I like to my customer and their daily lives – depending on how much I want to engage with them.

iv) Deposits/Withdrawals
This concept comes from The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt. Do your actions add to or take away from the relationship bank? Are you giving or taking and what is the right balance for a successful social media relationship?

v) Customer experience
Social Media has been said to be all about customer service. I agree it sure impacts customer service and that, by building better relationships with your customers your customer service is heightened. (If you haven’t yet pre-ordered your copy of Delivering Happiness by Zappo’s founder Tony Hsieh, I highly recommend you do. Zappos is THE model for customer service and they have used social media extremely well to build relationships.

I’m listening… Why Tara Hunt’s Listening Lessons are Ringing in My Ears

This week I had the opportunity to be part of a panel on social media at the CEBIT conference in Sydney. It’s a privilege and honour to be invited to address a smart group of businesspeople and one that I took seriously. I knew that as one of four panelists,  I had just moments to get across the key message that I wanted to convey about where businesses should start with their social media strategy.

In preparing, Tara Hunt’s words about ‘turning the bullhorn around’ were swishing around in my head. In her book The Whuffie Factor, which I’ve mentioned before in this blog, Tara talks about changing position from broadcasting out (as so many of us marketers have been trained to do) to really listening to our clients, asking them questions to really understand how we can better help them and fulfill their needs.

She talks about REALLY paying attention to them, rather than trying to get them to listen to us, our news of new products our services, our good ideas about why they should buy from us.

As I reviewed the Bullhorn chapter in her book (Chapter 3) prior to my presentation, I changed my focus from ‘What should I say at the CEBIT conference?’ (sure I had notes and bullets that, given the opportunity, I would share) and focused less on my agenda and more on what others were saying, what the audience was asking and what people really wanted to know.

I wish I’d had the day to spend with attendees to explore how they can use social media. It’s a subject I can add lots of value to people based on my experience. The value I received from presenting at CEBIT (other than being on a panel with some interesting folks who are doing great things with social media) was the reminder to listen more.

With that, I invite you to watch and listen to this interview I did recently with Tara Hunt.

In it she explains:

• Why she doesn’t believe in personal branding
• Five ways to raise your social capital – the wealth of your company within the online community
• What actions add to and take away from our social capital
• Why women in business need to become more visible in social networks

Tara is an expert in using the tools and the opportunities of the participatory web to succeed.

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For more information on Tara Hunt:

Twitter: missrogue

Website: www.horsepigcow.com

Join Tara’s Women’s Femanomics Google Group. Apply here.

Buy a copy of Tara’s book from Amazon

Power up your lead generation – A new webinar explains how

I met  Jenny Armato online. We were Facebook and Twitter friends long before we met in person when she was visiting Sydney in March. It was the first time we really got to ‘chew the fat’ (or sushi as it was) and I immediately asked her if she’d speak for our Growth Members and share with them about what she knows about generating  leads using social networks..

She really ‘knows her stuff’ when it come to doing business online and this week’s webinar is all about how to use social engines (Jennie’s word for social networks like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) to:

• Get new clients
• Generate leads
• Power up business

I’ve been using social networks for a couple of years now and have had some success at generating leads from these network. But i KNOW that next week when Jennie presents the Social Engines webinar I’m going to have a whole lot of new distinctions on how to be more strategic about lead generation. I know that we’ll look at:

• How to integrate automated lead generation from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook with your web business blog.
• The 3 most effective ways to generate a steady flow of qualified leads on Facebook.

My invitation to you to attend:

I hope you’ll join me.

Date: 26 May

Time: 10.30am – 12.00pm

Venue: Webinar (all you need is access to the Internet)

Price: Free for Growth Members, $39 for StartUp members and $59 for Non-Members

REGISTER TODAY

Hey Hey, it’s Social Media. Old TV Show leads the way in interactive TV.

How did an old show get to be (in my opinion) the best example Australia has of ‘interactive TV’ and the use of social media on television?

If you’ve managed to catch any episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Wednesday nights on Channel 9), then you’ll notice that they’ve done some really great work at integrating new media into the show.

The show’s formula and games are pretty much as they have been for many years. Simple and the kind of funny you kick yourself for laughing at but find yourself laughing regardless! Yeah for Chook Lotto, Celebrity Heads, Red Faces etc. The formula still works. That’s a given.

And now, the show’s masterminds (or some smart cookies involved) have harnessed the power of social media to engage not only the live studio audience but hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

I’m thrilled. Really.

The closest thing I’ve seen to this live use of social media is on US news shows when the Twitter stream is shown in the lower third. Nice, but boring.

Hey Hey has it right. Where once the studio audience would judge a ‘Red Faces’ act, now you and I can, from the comfort of our home, vote, share our opinion, debate and have a collaborative community experience that is unprecedented.

And, and using less ’social’ media,  Lavinia has a laptop on hand to get any new emails that are worth commenting about. What a great way to engage viewers! “You mean I could have my email talked about on live TV? Wow…”… and so Mary Smith from Tewantin in Queensland chimes in and takes part in the conversation.

I used Hey Hey as an example at three speaking engagements in the last week. I’m so ‘chuffed’ at how well they’re doing this. (Being LIVE they have a rare opportunity, on Australian TV, with Social Media but others have had the same chance. They are just the first, I think, to really get it right.)

As at this morning Hey Hey had 432, 936 fans on Facebook. How exciting.

This week the show used #chook (I think) as the tag for those watching to follow the conversation on Twitter.
(The Twitter following is at the mo’ just 3,123 but that’s okay. I think Facebook is more suited to what the show is doing.)

When ‘they’ told us about ‘interactive TV’… I don’t think ‘they’ knew that this would be it… a LIVE show, with Australia participating alongside the show’s activity.

Congratulations Hey Hey.

I’m watching (’cause I think you’re fun) AND because this ‘old dog’ has certainly learned some new tricks.

Visit the website

Hey Hey Facebook Page

Follow Daryl on Twitter

How the @ symbol put the elevator spiel out of work.

by Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

I’d like you to meet social media’s new identifier.

How do you introduce yourself in professional situations? Your well-honed 30-second elevator spiel could well be redundant. The new way to introduce yourself is a powerful window into your online social presence. You most powerful business card is now the @ symbol.

“Hi. I’m @cool-name-goes-here.”

Earlier this month I attended the South by South West Interactive festival in Austin Texas. The annual festival features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events and insightful lectures on what is new and different in media, publishing and technology (and soooo much more).

A common structure at all the sessions is for a Q&A session to follow a presentation or panel discussion.

I noticed this year that something had changed about the way people introduced themselves before asking a question. A person would walk up to a microphone and rather than say

“Hi, I’m Mary Smith from Fabulous Frocks…..”

she’d say something like:

“Hi. I’m @fabulousfrocks….”

It happened time and again that people identified themselves as their Twitter handle, their digital profile.

I think this says a lot.

If I introduce myself as my @ symbol then I’m saying that if you went to @me and took a look at what I say and share, if you connect to me via my social network presence, you’d know what you need to know about me to determine if you want to stay in touch, do business, network etc.

I love this concept. It calls for us to:

• be congruent in our online profiles (What you see (read) is what you get.)
• let our online profiles ‘do the talking’ when it comes to introducing our products and services
• be better communicators

Exciting times, people!

A Must-Attend Social Media and Technology Event -Sydney- 7-9 April

I don’t know how I almost missed it but I only just found out about this event three days ago. If you haven’t jumped on board and booked your seats then do it, do it now.

Connect Now is a three-day conference on social media, emerging technologies and social enterprise.

My jaw dropped when I realised that some of the speakers in the line up who will be in Australia, LIVE and in person.  I travelled thousands of miles to see some of these speakers, and you can see them right here in Australia next week.

If I sound a little excited, it is because I AM. I get asked to endorse events all the time. Unless I’m truly convinced my community will get value from them, I won’t. When I saw this event I RANG THE PROMOTOR to congratulate them on a spectacular line up and to ask if I could spread their message far and wide. We seldom get a lineup like this here on in Australia.

While there’s a host of international and local speakers (three days worth) there are three that make attending worthwhile. I’ve seen them all present and am excited to see them again.

1. Tara Hunt – The Whuffie Factor

Tara Hunt is a true pioneer in online marketing and one of the most respected authorities on online communities —how they are evolving, how they are changing both culture and business, and how businesses must behave in order to succeed in the participatory web economy. For her work in this area, Fast Company magazine named Tara in its 2009 list of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2009.

She’s also the author of one of my 2009 top business books, The Whuffie Factor.

I heard her speak in the US in 2009 and her work has impacted how I engage with my community.

Please, please go and see her.

2. Gary Vaynerchuk – Wine Library TV

His bio says “Gary Vaynerchuk is a 34 year old New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author who is also a self-trained wine and social media success.  From a young age, it was clear that Gary was a businessman. etc.”

But Here’s what I say…

I saw Gary speak in Austin two weeks ago and he had thousands of people totally electrified by his passion for playing big games, for cutting through the rubbish and being your very best. He’s a no-excuses kind of guy with an inimitable energy.  And he’s a master at using at social media to grow business.

You definitely can’t miss seeing him… Australia has not seen anything like Gary.

I still can’t believe how lucky we are to have him visit. (And if you haven’t picked up a copy of his book CRUSH IT! do.

3. Darren Rowse – Problogger

Yes, he’s an Aussie and he’s probably far more accessible to us than the rest of the Connect Now speakers but if you haven’t seen Darren then take this opportunity to hear him speak. Darren is the founder and editor of three successful blogs – the most relevant for you is probably ProBlogger.net (blog tips for those wanting to make a living blogging). He connects with millions of readers each month through his blogs but also social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and regularly speaks on how to engage in the social media space.

SPECIAL ABN PRICE TO ATTEND CONNECT NOW

The organisers have cleverly made it so that you can attend 1, 2 or all 3 days of the conference. I recommend that you try and get to Day 1 and Day 2 (though if you’re in the NFP sector – definitely go along to Day 3 as well).

I’ve arranged a special price for the event for you. BUT you must email info@connectnow.net.au and let them know you are after the ABN price. (You won’t get this offer on the website).

• One day is $350 instead of $400
• Two days is $695 instead of $795
• Workshops are $250 instead of $295

I don’t see another event like this on the horizon in Australia. It’ll be a great learning and networking opportunity.  I hope to see you there.

Suzi

Here’s a link to the event site where you’ll see the entire speaker line. But, remember. You’ll only get the special ABN discount if you email info@connectnow.net.au and ask for it.

5 Twitter Tips for Entrepreneurs

By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au

Leading up to the launch of a new site, I’m researching everything about the power of social media. Before I catapulted myself into the Twitterverse, I confess I cynically suspected it would be full of people updating me about their breakfast, their political views or be a series of automated marketing pitches.

Well, I was right, and it’s actually fantastic. The power of Twitter is that you can authentically and personably connect with people on the same wavelength. And I love that it’s a platform with fast, 140 character, very digestible pieces of information.

As I get to know people personally, including their breakfast menu, I get a sense of how I can help them and actually build a community of ‘real Tweeple’. Those tweeple might be interested in what I have to say, or have information that is helpful for my own personal and professional growth. Even though I’m not a fan of automated tweeting, I still appreciate the efficient sharing of information by the rich source of tweeple I have met during my 140 character visits to the Twitterverse. And I firmly believe that the quality of your Twitter followers is the key, not the quantity.

5 Twitter Lessons I’ve learnt:

Give to Get

Like most venues in life, on Twitter you need to give to receive value. This means:

• Tweet personable information about yourself that is relevant or has synergy for some of your followers. You can keep this non-identifying but still real. For example @SuziDafnis discloses with a picture that she has a penchant for terrifyingly high heels “Just said no to temptation… I can always change my mind. http://twitpic.com/178vfu”
• Tweet links to interesting blogs and news articles. They don’t need to be all your own.
• Re-tweet the tweets you find funny, useful or informative.
• Keep your self-serving links to a minimum but share the ones you are proud of such as your latest blogpost, or in my case recently: “A link to my 5min pres on why there needs to be more emotional intelligence in school http://bit.ly/b6aTzI #ignite”

Read the #FFs With Interest

On Twitter, #FF stands for Follow (on) Friday. Tweeters post Twitter identities of people they think are worth following. Usually this means they’ll be people of interest to you too. Click on their profiles, read their short description and latest tweets and if you’re interested, follow them.

The power of Twitter is that you can authentically and personably connect with people on the same wavelength.

Re-Edit Your Short Profile

The short profile, limited to 160 characters is what people read when thinking about following you. I’ve amended mine many times and I confess it’s still a work in progress. Be informative, personal and disclose your personal style. If you have feedback on mine, I would really appreciate it. Currently it’s “Publish Parenting Info- Raising Children with Emotional Intelligence. A happy child makes a world of difference. Mum of 3 boys. No, they’re not always happy.” What do you think?

The Best Camera is the One You Have With You

I have totally stolen this line from Andrew Harvey at Ignite – the least I can do is share a link to his presentation. Tweeters develop their online brand by taking a quick photo with their mobile phone. This ranges from a sunrise to a pet rabbit or in @SuziDafnis’ case, a dangerous set of heels! A service you can use for this is Twitpic.

Use a Browser to Avoid Twitter Overload

Twitter can suck you in. If you want to scan through the important stuff quickly, download a Twitter browser to manage your lists of Tweeters. I use Tweetdeck but there are many others. Here are a few to check out: UberTwitter, HootSuite and Seesmic.

Hope that’s useful to you – I’m loving the learning that comes with my entrepreneur’s journey – see you out there in the Twitterverse.

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Yvette Vignando - www.happychild.com.au Yvette is pursuing her passion – to take action that helps children develop great social and emotional skills as a foundation for a happy and successful life. Formerly a lawyer and then successful executive coach specialising in Emotional Intelligence, Yvette was encouraged by her experience of MentorNet to launch her business – a website for parents that publishes practical and engaging information about raising children with emotional intelligence. Yvette looks forward to sharing the challenges and successes of her experience as she navigates her way through the adventures of launching a website, and tackles online sales and marketing, an evolving business plan, and the growing universe of social media. Yvette hopes that by following her personal and professional development as an entrepreneur you will also be inspired to follow your passions. Phone: 02 9889 0999 Email: yvette@happychild.com.au Website: www.happychild.com.au Twitter: www.twitter.com/yvettevignando LinkedIn: View her Public Profile Member Profile: See Yvette’s Member Profile

Tips for successful blogging, from Problogger Darren Rowse

Day 1 at the South by South West festival and Aussie Darren Rowse (@problogger and problogger.net) took the Day Stage to talk about his book (which is about to be released in 2nd edition) and gave some great tips for successful blogging.

A few minutes into his presentation the room was evacuated when a (false) alarm went off but we were back 20minutes later to hear his great tips again.

I managed to catch up with him quickly and invited him to give some of his strategies for successful blogging.

In summary:

1. Be as useful as you can.
2. Enhance the lives of others.
3. Produce content that others want to share.
4. Put yourself out there and promote your content.
   • Where are your readers gathering online?
5. Interact with your audience as much as you can.
   • Ask questions, start debates, engage with people, highlight your readers’ blogs.
6. Capture people’s details (not just RSS) then you can email them update, drive traffic and promote product to them later.
7. Look at the style you write in and experiment in different voices e.g. humorous, technical, use of video – readers will respond well to some but not others – and helps your style and voice evolve.

PLUS:

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