So many business owners I speak to sign up for twitter and facebook with no real strategy.  They simply sign up because they have heard the buzz about these networks, or because someone said that they should.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with brands large and small helping them to effectively take advantage of social media.  If you give me 5 minutes and read this post I will share with you a solid social media strategy that I’ve used time and time again to help my client’s businesses grow.

Keep in mind there are many different social media strategies.  I’m simply sharing with you one that I’ve found to be effective.

That strategy is…. leveraging online influencers.

I define an online influencer as someone who has a great amount of respect, visibility and influence in their respective niche. This influencer could be a power user on twitter, a popular group administrator ( meetup, linkedin or facebook), premium blogger, top youtube vlogger, or simply someone with a lot of friends on a social network.

So how do you take advantage of this strategy and truly leverage online influencers?

Well lets start with the basics…

The cornerstone of any successful online marketing initiative is to first have a crystal clear understanding of those in your target audience.   This strategy is no different.

Every niche is unique in size, engagement levels, audience, etc.   Therefore there is no cookie cutter method to identify online influencers in your respective niche.

For example: The technology space on average has a greater interest and higher traffic than the scrapbooking/craft space.  Therefore the top influencers in the technology space will have significantly more eyeballs, subscribers or followers than those in the scrapbooking/craft niche.  Similarly you may notice that parenting blogs have significantly more engagement than extreme sports blogs.  Since this is the case, the criteria for determining an influencer in one market cannot be used in a different market because you cannot measure each on the same scale.

To begin implementing this strategy, spend some time establishing bench marks on influencers within the niche you are targeting.  Establish how many subscribers and comments a blog has.  Also look at how many unique visitors a site has using compete and the average traffic levels using alexa.  Finally look at the level of engagement and interaction the influencer has.  You want to connect with influencers who have meaningful interactions with their audience.

Here are some tools that I use to find various influencers:

• To find top bloggers:  Technorati.com, AllTop.com, various blogger awards, blog networks, blog rolls of other top bloggers.
• To find top users on twitter:  TwitterGrader.com, Klout.com, twellow.com, wefollow.com
• To find top groups: Search for groups on linkedin, meetup, facebook

Below I’ve noted the main options available to you once you’ve found your online influencers…

1. Observation: Utilize this tactic for market research purposes to keep up with customer, competitor and industry trends and intelligence. Observing your customers and competitors and seeing what topics people are interested, or what problems they are having can give your brand valuable insight into content ideas for your marketing materials or website.  You will also be able to see where the industry as a whole is going and be able to position your brand accordingly.
2. Participation: Participate in the conversation to increase your brand’s visibility and helps you build a relationship with the influencer. You don’t want to go into the social setting and promote your product, however it’s wise to join in the conversation and share valuable insight to position you/and/or your brand as an expert in the field.  If people see that what you are sharing is valuable they will often be inspired to learn more about you, or your company.  This is applicable for twitter, blogs and virtually any other social media channel.
3. Contribution: Become a guest writer for a popular blog or administrator for a group or forum.   This is a great option being that the blog or group already has an established audience that you can reach.  With this being the case it can be challenging to achieve this-there may be many others working to do the same thing.  The key with this option is that you really have to know what you’re talking about.  You have to be an expert in the field…If you are feel free to take a shot-email the blog or group owner and see what happens.    If you’re fortunate enough to achieve this- Reveal your expertise through quality content and interactions and you’ll often see great results.  There is also SEO benefits if you work your company link into or at the end of the article.
   
   
4. Sponsored Conversations: Find influencers that are the most relevant to you and reach out to them to review your product or promote a product you offer. Make sure to disclose and follow all FTC guidelines.

   Keep in mind-many times these influencers will not make the plug for free. If this is the case you have to judge how much the plug is worth to you.   It all depends on the quality and size of the group or audience.  Once you’ve decided the value you can choose to compensate them by sending them a complementary product, gift card or paying them accordingly.  You can also offer them commission if their audience or group members purchase a product- this is a very favorable solution since no money is paid out until a sale occurs.  This is called affiliate marketing.  This requires some effort and programming to set up, but how it works is that each influencer would have their own unique tracking link.  When they share it with their audience and a sale happens they would be compensated.   The good thing about this tactic is that no money is paid until a sale happens- which means no up front investment for exposure to the influencers audience.

   Sponsored conversations can be utilized through influencers in virtually all online channels:

   1. Relevant Group creators (Meetup, LinkedIn, Facebook)
   2. Influential twitter users
   3. Highly Visible Bloggers
   4. Etc
5. Advertising: Advertising is another option available to reach an influencer’s audience.  Ads are often purchased on a CPM (Cost per thousand impressions of your ad) or CPC (Cost per click). If utilizing facebook you can target by demographic, or add specific keywords related to your business when setting up your ad to reach those people interested in those topics.  You can also advertise using google’s content advertising network.  You can select the types of websites you’d like to advertise and pay on a CPC basis.  If you choose to utilize this tactic make sure that you measure and track everything- Number of clicks, click thru rate, CPC, which messaging and images are working best, cost per sale, etc.   Constantly work to refine and improve your conversion rates.  Advertising can get expensive and it is essential to keep your eye constantly on ROI.

Here are some additional action items available to you for several types of popular online influencers.

How to Leverage Twitter Power Users: Follow these twitter users and engage them in conversation to build relationships with those in your industry and become more aware of industry events and news.

Another valuable way to use these twitter influencers is to follow their followers. The people who follow these influencers are most likely interested in your industry (since these are the influencers in your industry). By following their followers you have a chance to gain visibility and connect with these people, which in turn may turn into champions, customers or facilitators of word-of-mouth marketing.

Generating Value from Online Groups : Join a number of  groups that are most applicable and participate in the conversation. Don’t sell, but simply participate in whatever conversation is occurring and by sharing insightful comments they will see what you do and if interested reach out to you.  Another strong way to utilize online groups is to reach out to the group owner or admin and have them send out a message to those in their group about your product or service (part of sponsored conversation tactic).

Taking Advantage of Popular Blogs: Build relationships with these bloggers by being a frequent commenter.  Each time you comment on these blogs you also generate a back link to your website which has SEO benefits.   Also, if you leave an insightful comment on a popular blog others will take notice and this will help increase your own credibility.    See what conversations are occurring ( what problems or interests) they are discussing and create content in the form of blog posts or videos to address it (linking back to the original source).  Reading industry blogs also keeps you on the cutting edge of advances and news within the industry.

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One final tip….

One thing to remember is that typically if you are able to reach a member of your audience chances are they are connected to others within your target audience. The beauty about the web is that any one can be a publisher and share their experiences and thoughts with their social circle. Though the online influencers we discussed previously are the top influencers within a space that doesn’t mean that you should ignore other influencers. There is a term in marketing called the long tail. What the long tail essentially means is that there are several major influencers in each market, but if you are able to reach many smaller infleuncers this may equal out or surpass the value of any particular one infleuncers.

Assess your time availability and implement these tactics accordingly. Social media is a lot like working out and you need to set aside time to flex your expertise and social muscles. The more influencers you reach and leverage the better, but keep good form (quality) and if you have any questions seek out a good social media trainer. You don’t want to pull a muscle like these guys-Social Media gone wrong or these ones for that matter…Social media catastrophes.

An Experienced social media consultant can also help you to become an online influencer. This is a great goal, but takes time, hard work and guidance.

What do you think about leveraging online influencers?

Have you utilized any of these strategies…If so what results have you had?

Cutting-Edge Artist Named Creative Director for Orlando’s Brand Advance

ORLANDO, Fla. (July 2, 2010) – Rich Johnson, an award-winning artist who has distinguished himself as an innovator in design, photography and video, has been named creative director for Orlando-based Brand Advance LLC.

Brand Advance – an Interactive marketing agency specializing in SEO, Social Media and Marketing Staffing is headed up by Chief Executive Officer David Brim – is based in Orlando on East Colonial Drive.

(Above intro and outro created by Rich Johnson)

Johnson, a 2002 graduate of Full Sail University in Winter Park, spent the past 10 years honing artistic skills that have evolved to include all areas of design: print, web, film, photography, and graphic art.

He also has been recognized for his work with Claymation, Lego animation, print and digital design, and has won numerous national and international awards for visual arts, including first-place for Lego Animation 2000 and Only in Your Imagination Clay Animation 2000. He also is an approved Getty’s Photographer whose work recently was featured on MSN.

Brim said Johnson is a great fit for his company, adding that “his appointment will help us strengthen our focus on creativity and innovation to inspire and excite our customers.”

Robert Urban, chief marketing officer for the company, describes Johnson as “a creative thinker who understands how to appeal to a broader audience.”

In his new position, Johnson will help develop and implement creative campaigns for clients in all aspects of design. He also has plans to develop and launch a vlog and webisodes for Brand Advance’s internal properties.

What’s the Empty Party Scenario?

Well…One perfect example comes to mind:

When I was in college there was a party that several of my neighbors organized. They had been planning the party for some time and had the perfect set up, lighting and speaker system. However there was one major flaw…when people came rolling in there was hardly anybody there. In College, the “Party Industry” is a competitive landscape and if students walk into a party and see it doesn’t have a decent crowd they will turn right back around searching for the next one. When I talked to my neighbors I asked if they had a good turn out they said yes, but it was so fragmented that nobody stayed and the party didn’t gain traction. They were not happy with the way their party turned out.

The Empty Party Scenario is magnified 10 fold when you are referring to online ventures.  For example….Let’s say you have a concept for a social network tailored for Fishing that allow users to connect with other fisherman in their area. You’re very excited and get the best web-design and the standard features of a social site (discussion boards, groups, ability to friend, etc.  You plan on using social media to market your website and get a reasonable amount of sign-ups. All is well right….Nope

The users who have signed up are all in different cities and you built your concept around networking with local fisherman. Consequently you have a very fragmented userbase consisting of users in Long Island, Miami, LA, Portland, etc….Once your users have signed up and realize that there is hardly any people in their specific area or little activity on the site in general and they will leave and not come back.

How can the Empty Party Scenario be solved or prevented?

1. Utilize the bowling pin strategy for Market Entry
   From a marketing perspective you are not able to boil the ocean all at one time.  You have to boil water in a small area first then open it up to a larger body of water and expand gradually.  The same premise is with the bowling pin analogy….You first have to knock down one pin, then two more, then three more, etc.  Facebook used this strategy to exxpand.  They first started at Harvard, then several other schools in the Ivy league, then all Ivy league then Northeast schools, etc.  This not only creates buzz, but enables you to get a very relevant and targeted audience.
2. Make Your Venture/Party Sticky
   What do I mean about making a venture sticky?  Well going back to the party analogy if there was awesome food people would most likely stay.  As more and more people came in the party would seem better because people are staying.  This can be done for your online venture by providing a great tool or good food for thought in the form of content.  When planning GroupTable we constructed it in a way that if a small group of 3-5 went onto GroupTable they really don’t care if there are 10 people on the site or 10 million.  The group receives the same benefit regardless.
3. Encourage Referrals (Incentives & Word of Mouth)
   When launching a business if you are able to offer incentives or referral perks to current customers your business can grow immensely.  Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate lots of referrals if it fits your business model.  The other side of this is that you should craft a product or design your party in the way that is worthy of a referral.  This could also include having a track record for throwing successful parties or launching successful ventures.

   You should also strive to make it very easy for others (your customers) to share their experiences with others.  Offering SWAG (or promotional items) is a great way to do this…providing a code for them to embed on their blog or website that promotes the event or venture is another.

4. Develop a Captive Beta Audience (Private Party)
   When throwing a party it helps to have a nice crowd already there.  When launching an online social/community site don’t do a public launch or loud opening until you have everything in place and have a decent amount of people already there.    Stay in Beta for a period of time and get all the kinks worked out.  Thinking back to the party analogy invite a small amount of people first who can tell if the DJ is not good or if the food isn’t up to par.  Once everything is fixed up based on your findings and you have a decent amount of people you can then open it up to a wider audience.  Then when others come it will be a better party, not only because of what you fixed, but because there are others there.
   
   
5. Find other Parties & Convince People to Leave
   One way to solve your empty party scenario is to find other parties or social settings and encourage people to leave to attend your party.  The same is true online.  You have to be very careful when you do this because you can position your brand in an unfavorable way as well as create some enemies.  Actively seeking out places where your target market interacts and sparking up communications I feel is the best way to do this.  One caution is that you don’t want to spam people.  You don’t want to go into a party and start bashing the party loudly the party your at to get people to go to yours.  I recommend talking about the party and seeing if people like it then mentioning there is another alternative that they may want to check out.  Focus on educating people on something new not selling.  This will spark people’s curiosity and if everything else is in order will bring you more people to your party/customers.
   
   

What are your thoughts about the Empty Party Scenario?  How else can this be prevented?  Do you have any other examples that you’ve personally experienced.

It’s clear that social media can be used for many different purposes….customer service, building relationships with potential and current clients, building credibility in a niche, allowing people to share their experiences with your brand with others, staying in contact with friends, sharing valuable content and much more.

What is the primary way you use social media?

What did you think about the video….was there anything that surprised you?

Other interesting facts:

• More than 2 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 14 million videos uploaded each month
• More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
• More than 3 million events created each month
• More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site

According to a Facebook statement, “Reaching 300 million users is an important milestone, but we feel like we are just getting started. Along with the company’s user growth, Facebook’s financial strength continues to grow even in a really tough economic climate.”

Source: Brian Solis on 9/15/09

Brian Solis is the Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley.

Just something to make you laugh:

Here is the link to view Twitter’s 101 guide.  You can view the guide online, download ppt slides, or download the full guide.

At my previous job at a top social media marketing company we ran sponsored tweet campaigns and twitter contests for Sears, Kmart, SeaWorld and more.  If you have any questions about twitter or would like to discuss growing your company’s presence on twitter feel free to contact me at David[at]Davidbrim[dot]org, or follow me on twitter: @Davidbrim

It’s very true that Information is power and the amount of psychographic data and usage trends facebook has at their finger tips is scary (and I’m not the only one that thinks so: Do you have a FB video).

However as far as profitability and being a viable business I think a valuation of $6.5 billion is absurd. They have raised $716+ million in funding / multiple rounds and in my opinion have too high of costs (700 employees) and not enough revenue coming in for such a valuation. http://tinyurl.com/2cg44

I have a few friends that work at FB and am connected by a 1-2 degrees to some higher up sales managers/executives and last I heard they were not happy at all.  Even though it was a while back my thought is that Microsoft’s $240M investment into Facebook for 1.6% giving them a $15 Billion dollar valuation still is a large reason why they are valued so high.  It’s no doubt that a company like Microsoft or Google can better monetize facebook then facebook themselves can, but how and to what extent remains to be seen.

If you had the money would you buy fb for even $1B?

I wouldn’t.

just my $.02s

I’m going to submit an article to various college professors and career service employees I know in the hopes that more college students will utilize social media to catapult their career or business when they graduate.  Let me know what you think:

Here’s just a few benefits why a college student, recent grad or professional in general should be utilizing social media:

1. Control Your Online Reputation

When a potential employer or business partner meets you, or comes across your resume you better believe they will often do some due diligence before hiring or going into business with you. When your name is searched on Google or another major search engine wouldn’t you want favorable results to appear? Millions of students around the country let their online presence stop with facebook. Therefore if someone is searching for their name the top results may include them doing keg stand or photos of a drunk make out session at a local bar, night club or frat party. By publishing favorable content and keeping an eye on your online reputation you can control the image and perception people have of you. This is one of the fundamental aspects of marketing any brand and you are the most important brand you’ll ever have to market.

2. Gain Credibility & Expand Your Circle of Influence

By actively participating in daily conversations happening in your industry (or future industry) on blogs, forums and professional social networking sites like LinkedIn you have the ability to “Flex-your-expertise” and let your knowledge and experience shine through. This will increase your credibility and everything that comes with it such as:

- Additional job offers
- Business opportunities
- Media exposure

Once you’ve established credibility for yourself, social media and the internet as a whole can increase your circle of influence very quickly. By continuously producing high quality content and contributing insightfully to meaningful conversations in your space you have the ability to reach and influence thousands of people all across the world.

3. Build Your Professional Network

It is often said that to be successful or land that great job it’s not what you know it’s who you know. One great thing about social media- especially twitter, blogs and forums is that you have the ability to really get to know, interact, and build relationships with a wide range of professionals, potential employers and thought leaders. This is very powerful because people generally want to do business with people they know and respect. There are many times that I’ve met someone that I’ve interacted with on twitter or in the blogosphere and when we met it was like we had been friends for years. I would encourage all marketing professionals especially students to invest their time in using social media to build their professional network, it will pay off immensely.

4. Improve Your New Media Marketing IQ

The landscape of marketing has changed tremendously with the growth of the internet and personal computer. In the last five years there has been a large switch from traditional marketing which markets “At a Potential Customer” to new media marketing (or Social Media Marketing) where you build relationships with potential customers as well as deliver valuable content which to them at the precise moment they are seeking it. These new media marketing methods don’t interrupt the consumer like a loud broadcast or radio ad, but help potential consumers solve their problems and position you as a trusted resource making them more likely to do business with you. By building your online brand you will become familiar with new age marketing tactics like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, viral marketing and more. This will not only make you more marketable yourself, but give you valuable experience that you can take with you for years to come that will enable you to grow awareness of any product, service, or brand you decide to promote.

Did I miss anything? How beneficial do you think utilizing social media is in growing your career, personal brand or business venture?

Sponsored Conversations

The Forrester report is typically $749, but can be downloaded for free Here.

Obviously this is a joke….The video does pokes fun at some real issues though. For instance what’s next in the realm of social media. Twitter has been around since March, 2006…That’s over three years! The early adopters of social media & technology, people like Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and others have been using twitter for a very long time, however it hasn’t been until the last 3-6 months that there seems to be a twitter boom amongst the main stream. Maybe it’s because Barrack Obama is on twitter or celebrities like Ellen, Puff Daddy, Austin Kucher and more are now active on twitter.   What’s interesting is that my girlfriend @Lindsay273 is now active on twitter when a year ago she used to make fun of me for using it and didn’t quite get it.  Technology is constantly evolving and there’s always something next on the horizon, something that the early adopters begin to migrate towards.  I once heard one of the founders of twitter mention that they want twitter to be a social utility like a telephone.  There are also stories of people using twitter in strange ways such as turning off the lights in their home or allowing your un-born baby to tweet, but will twitter every be adopted as a main stream method of communication like email or the telephone, or will it just get acquired and trail off over time?