Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Content and Social Media Marketing Success Secret: Create Your Core Branded Destination

Part 2 of a 3-Part Guest Series by Susan Gunelius. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Content marketing and social media marketing are hotter than ever, but with so many tools, tricks, and so-called experts telling you different things you have to be doing to be successful on the social web, you can end up feeling overwhelmed with no idea where to begin or what to do next.

Relax. Take a deep breath and remember that content marketing and social media marketing are exactly what they claim to be -- forms of marketing, and the underlying theories of marketing still apply.

Therefore, your content marketing and social media marketing efforts need to be based in the fundamental principles of marketing theory to be successful over the long-term. Before you create a Twitter account, add yourself to Facebook, or start a blog, you need to set yourself up for content and social media marketing success by understanding the most basic secrets to content marketing success, which are rooted in integrated marketing and cross-promotional theories. The first of those secrets is the importance of creating a core branded online destination.

As you participate in the social web conversation, publish content, and share information, you’ll do so on a wide variety of websites, blogs, social networks, forums, and so on. In order to make those various efforts a valuable part of your content and social media marketing plans, all roads must lead back to what I call your core branded online destination as mentioned in step 9 of my previous article published on ADMAVEN, “10 Tips to Develop a Content and Social Media Marketing Strategy.”

In other words, as you build your online reputation and develop relationships with people online, you should do so with the goal of bringing them back to your core branded online destination where they can get more of your amazing content and you can deepen your relationships with them. Never boldly demand that people come to your core branded online destination. Instead, quietly offer a link to your core branded destination or make a reference to your useful content, so your audience feels in control of your interactions. In time, your most engaged audience will follow you, tell their own connections about you, and share your amazing content, opening the doors for you to engage with even more people!

I always recommend a blog as the core branded online destination because of its flexibility in terms of the type of content you can publish as well as its search friendliness. Even if you don’t own an online business, blogging can help you as your core branded online destination because of one simple thing -- Google.

Think of it this way -- if you build a company website with 10 pages, that gives Google 10 entry points to find you, index your content, and deliver your site in keyword search results. Now, imagine that you add a blog to your website and publish a new post every day for a year. That gives you 365 more entry points for Google to index and deliver in search results. Now, imagine that you publish amazing content that people want to share with their own audiences (I call this shareworthy content). They write about your posts on their own blogs, tweet links to your posts, share them on LinkedIn, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, and so on. Suddenly, your original 10 entry points have grown to hundreds or thousands simply because you did two things:

  1. You connected with your target audience across the social Web and made an effort to bring them back to your core branded online destination.
  2. You published amazing content that your audience wanted to share and talk about with their own followers.

You’d be crazy to pass up that kind of access to people!

Therefore, the first secret you need to follow in order to put yourself on the path for successful content and social media marketing is to set up your core branded online destination, start publishing amazing content there, and then, work to build relationships across the web and bring people back to your core branded online destination for further interactions, learning, and sharing.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series where you’ll learn the second biggest secret to getting started on a path to content and social media marketing success -- Surrounding Consumers with Branded Experiences -- coming next week on ADMAVEN.

You can read more about creating a content and social media marketing strategy in Susan Gunelius' new book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, which is now available in book stores and online. ADMAVEN readers can follow the link to get a free bonus chapter, which is available for download from McGraw-Hill.
Susan Gunelius spent over a decade directing marketing programs for some of the biggest companies in the world, and today, she is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. You can follow Susan on the social Web on Twitter (@susangunelius), Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Nick Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years, and helps agencies and brands find and connect to digital audiences for profitable outcomes. Want to talk to him about how a complete digital communications program can help your agency or brand grow? Email him at nick@lonelybrand.com

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

10 Tips to Develop a Content and Social Media Marketing Strategy

Part 2 of a 3-Part Guest Series by Susan Gunelius. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Content and social media marketing are hotter than ever, and you might be tempted to dive in and catch some of the so-called lightening in a bottle that you've heard about. While it's true that every day you wait to get started with content and social media marketing is a missed opportunity, you should take some time before you invest too much time and energy to do some research and create a strategy that will actually help you meet your goals.

With that in mind, take a step back and read through the following tips to develop a content and social media marketing strategy to ensure you set yourself up for success from the start:
  1. Find out what your competitors are doing online. Look for gaps and opportunities.
  2. Learn where your customers spend time online. Listen to their online conversations and join them to start building relationships with them.
  3. Define the demographic and behavioral makeup of your best audience. This is your target audience.
  4. Define your primary social media and content marketing messages and the added value you will bring to the online conversation.
  5. Determine your 1-year objectives for your content and social media marketing efforts.
  6. Define your brand promise and your brandís position relative to your competitors in the marketplace so you can differentiate yourself in consumersí minds.
  7. Develop an honest assessment of the money and time you can invest into content and social media marketing over the next 12-months to determine what you can realistically afford in terms of outside help.
  8. Find the online influencers who have the ears of your target audience and get on their radar screens by commenting on their blogs, tweeting them, and reaching out to them via social networking and/or email.
  9. Create a great core branded destination to which all of your content and social media marketing efforts will lead back to. This is where youíll deepen relationships through interaction and providing amazing, shareworthy content that your audience will want to talk about and share with their own audiences thereby extending your exposure across the Web.
  10. Surround consumers with branded online destinations, so they can self-select how they want to interact with your brand. You can't be everywhere, but itís important to provide alternative ways for people to engage with you (not everyone likes to read blogs or use Twitter). Give your audience more options without spreading yourself too thin. Quality of content and relationships trumps quantity when it comes to building long-term, sustainable, organic growth for both your online presence and your business.

You can read more about creating a content and social media marketing strategy in Susan Gunelius' new book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, which is now available in book stores and online. ADMAVEN readers can follow the link to get a free bonus chapter, which is available for download from McGraw-Hill.

Susan Gunelius spent over a decade directing marketing programs for some of the biggest companies in the world, and today, she is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. You can follow Susan on the social Web on Twitter (@susangunelius), Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Nick Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years, and helps agencies and brands find and connect to digital audiences for profitable outcomes. Want to talk to him about how a complete digital communications program can help your agency or brand grow? Email him at nick@lonelybrand.com