With two Search Camps under the belt and a favorable growth rate (attendance skyrocketed 300% this year–over a dozen campers) the Search Camp Counselors are looking to ramp things up.

Adopters of social marketing tactics in Australia (and across the world) are on a steep learning curve.  There’s a ton of material available on-line, all of it professing to solve your woes – if only you were able to penetrate the jargon, physically wade through the sheer volume of it or simply devote the time to watching/reading/listening to it.  And, as you know, most of it is snake oil.  Ever heard the phrase “We’ll get you on page 1 of Google, overnight”?  If you see it, run for the hills.  It cannot be done.

At Search Camp, we can help you:

• Determine what you need to know and how to advance your new skills
• Figure out which social marketing tools you should activate (and what you could invest doing it)
• What kind of results you should anticipate

We’re a hands on kind of crowd, so we’ll work through practical examples of how to get best possible results for your products/business over a realistic time frame using social marketing strategies.  During your Search Camp, you’ll have a counselor virtually to yourself, helping to get you up and running, telling you what you need to know to get going.  Not just any counselor either – these are people who live in the trenches, innovating and pushing the social marketing boundaries of this new industry every single day.  Check ‘em out on the Counselors page of the Search Camp web site.

Using the very tools that we will help you activate to promote your business, you’ll be able to pre-design the agenda so that we cover all the topics you need to cover.  After all, it’s Your Search Camp.

• Minimal cost – $100 per head to cover the costs.
• Counselors that really know what they’re doing.
• A syllabus that you’ve designed.

We want everything about Search Camp to replicate exactly how your business will benefit from social marketing strategies.  We put it in your hands to tell us what you want.  Because we can.  And so can you.

Here’s to you happy Campers,

The Search Camp Counselors

It was the catch cry at the end of Search Camp 2 – “OK, so I get it – but I don’t know how to do it.”

To the Counselors, this was an excellent outcome.  Social marketing is new, it’s conceptual and strategic.  Until you’ve seen good examples, many times, of social marketing tactics in action, you’d be in a very small minority if you could truthfully say “I get it”.

So, do you get it?

Search Camp2 walked 10 small business owners along the horizon of what’s possible using social marketing tools.  We discussed a range of social marketing tools, how they can be used, how much they cost (mostly nothing), and how much time needs to be invested to do this properly (that’s the rub).

Then to celebrate, we milked a cow.  Truly.

But not before preparing feed, herding up the girls, distracting all but the two we wanted, penning them up, setting the stool, introducing ourselves to Codamine and MC Dexter and then commencing the actual milking.  This process was of course designed as a direct metaphor for social marketing in real life.  In real life social marketing you need four things:

1. Something interesting to say (content is King, Queen, Prince and Princess)
2. A platform from which to say it (A web site, Twitter account, Facebook page, YouTube channel – you get the picture)
3. An on-line community of interested customers and prospective customers (building it does not guarantee they will come – refer to point 1)
4. A way to measure whether or not your social marketing tactics are working (web site hits, sales and profits are excellent places to go looking for evidence of success).

“Aha” moments came thick and fast.  One happy Camper was able to report a page 1, second position ranking against their chosen keyword which resulted from a small number of blog entries.  Another moment showed Twitter’s real time viral capabilities in action – one of our Campers got famous, very quickly, as word spread via their Twitter community about how our morning session of Search Camp was going.

While Twitter stole the limelight as perhaps the cheapest and easiest to implement of the current array of social marketing tools, two big questions kept coming up:

1. What do I write in my 140 characters?
2. When do I do this – my day is full already?

Well, the first one is more art than science. With a few pointers from Counselors Dan Swan, Greg Cromwell, Andrew Bleakley and Simon Elleway, the best advice is to get in and do it.  You will err, as we have all done, but as social marketing tools go, Twitter is a very forgiving learning ground.

The second point requires a slight shift in perspective.  This is not new work – focus on your business’ basic value adds, and you’ll figure out what to do very quickly:

1. As a restaurant, you’d publish your daily specials (something you already write on a chalk board)
2. As an Ice Cream van, you’d publish your location (something you already declare with a loud-speaker blaring Greensleeves or Fur Elise)
3. As a florist, you’d publish photos of your best arrangements (something you already email with a thank you note to the purchaser so they know what they sent their loved ones)
4. As a photographer, you’d publish your favorite snaps (you’ve got them in digital format anyway, publishing them is a snap – pardon the pun)

See, that’s not so hard is it?  But what you do need is the technical framework to enable you to publish information quickly – over and over again – as the need arises or as innovation and “aha-moments” strike.  Our counselors can help with that too.

So, do you get it?

All the best Campers.

Counselors Dan, Greg, Andrew and Simon

Greg Cromwell with a wheel barrow full of Social Media Milking Tools

While your counsellor Simon writes up some notes from our day we thought this picture summed the Social Media Marketing Scene at Search Camp up nicely. Lots of happy campers getting ready to get their hands dirty with Dan Swan and Greg Cromwell leading them on. Bring on the notes and the next Search Camp Session. Yes it’s true a hand milking social media metaphor: meet Condamine the Dexter Heifer.

Condamine the Dexter Heifer ready for milking

For those in attendance, Search Camp Number 1 provided plenty of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) content to mull over.  A couple of reflections from this counselor include:
One:  Despite removing 50% of the content suggested in the first draft agenda, with enthusiastic Camper interaction, we covered about %50 of what remained.  The learning:  SEO and SEM are complex disciplines that are growing and changing every day.  If you’re going to win, Search Camp is an essential place to start.
Two:  No matter the technical ability of campers, there are critical “take-aways” for everyone at all levels of the technical spectrum and roles in the web development organization
Three: It took all four Counselors, and their combined 50 years of experience, to address all the questions raised.
Four:  Search Engines really are a lot like horses
Four:  The food was awesome
Five:  Goonengerry is the perfect place to muse over all things SEO and SEM

See you next time campers.  We’re ready when you are.