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:
- Something interesting to say (content is King, Queen, Prince and Princess)
- A platform from which to say it (A web site, Twitter account, Facebook page, YouTube channel – you get the picture)
- An on-line community of interested customers and prospective customers (building it does not guarantee they will come – refer to point 1)
- 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:
- What do I write in my 140 characters?
- 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:
- As a restaurant, you’d publish your daily specials (something you already write on a chalk board)
- As an Ice Cream van, you’d publish your location (something you already declare with a loud-speaker blaring Greensleeves or Fur Elise)
- 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)
- 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
