Getting customers to talk about your product or service isn’t as hard as you might think. A viral marketing campaign that provides them with a way to connect with others you serve, a compelling story they can share, and a subconscious nudge is all they need. I’ve found three strategies that make viral marketing especially contagious. Provide A Way For Your Customers to Interact. Getting customers to spend more time online talking to other customers is one way to help them spread the word. For example, add a chat room to your website. People talk about what they do. And if they are using your site to connect with others sharing the same experiences, they can’t help but tell others about their experience. Pretty soon, you see folks using your chat room that are interested in your product or service, but want someone’s opinion whose used it before. If your product or service is good (and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be) then those prospects are fertile conversion for your business. Make Your Product Easy to Work into Conversations. This is about your brand. For example Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan has become cliche. I remember using it all the time as a motivator ... read more >>
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 It’s a given–we all want to do more in less time with social media. The good news is that there are lots of tools to help automate your social networking activities.
Although I don’t encourage automating your whole experience (that would be missing the point), there are some useful productivity-boosters worth checking out. 1) Ping.fm: Want to update your Twitter status as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites all at the same time from one place? Ping is great for this. Tools like Ping are one of the top “secret weapons” of the most successful social media marketers. (Finally, a way to be in multiple places at one time!  )  So, if you have something to say to your Twitter followers but that you would also like to share with your Facebook fans and friends and your connections on LinkedIn, you can—without going to each site and logging in separately. Ping has the ability to update over 40 different social networks. This is a major time saver! Plus, you can even create groups, so that if you only want to update LinkedIn and Twitter but not Facebook, for example, you can do that. It’s definitely worth exploring. (It’s also worth ... read more >>
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 C.G Lynch interviewed me about some Twitter tips for job seekers. You can see how I use Twitter in action, by following me @philreCareered. I've highlighted my comments in bold: Though LinkedIn tops the list of professionally-oriented social networks for job seeking, you can also use Twitter to get the word out about your skills and talents to relevant people in your industry.
But you must take some steps to be a good Twitter citizen before you tweet yourself into your next gig. We spoke with some career and social media experts on how to utilize Twitter for the purpose of job seeking, and the ways in which you can promote your own interests while helping others at the same time. (As you'll find, you can't do one without the other).
If you're new to Twitter, we recommend reading our beginners' guide to Twitter, as well as our Twitter etiquette guide, to learn more about what makes this community operate. Overall, it's important to remember that Twitter is about exchanging ideas and letting people know more about you based on the content of your tweets.
Know who to follow
If you want someone to think about you when a job opening arises, you need to get on that person's Twitter radar. ... read more >>
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When a website, or any appliance, for that matter, becomes a verb, you know they have done something right. "To digg" has become an important addition to this noun-turned-verb crowd. Do you think it annoys Yahoo! that despite their best efforts, their name as a verb means something like "to make a fool of oneself?" - You can submit your own content to Digg; however, whether your content is dugg en masse has a lot to do with the status of the person who submits the article. Think of it as Washington DC. You want to get an influential lobbyist to work on your behalf, because even if your initiative is awesome, no one will listen if you have no reputation.
- When someone else diggs your content without your knowledge, you'll probably not be ready for a huge increase in traffic. If your site is strong enough, an untimely digg isn't going to hurt you. In fact, as Guillaume Bouchard mentions in his blog post about being dugg during alpha phase, the traffic served as a free stress test, and the Digg comments were a free usability report.
- If you have digg-worthy content, consider enabling a comments form, or some type of participation, whereby users have to register in order to ...
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 Chris Brogan (one of social media's Godfathers) and Julien Smith, a trend analyst and expert on building communities have released a new book, Trust Agents.
The subtitle pretty much tells you what to expect....using the web to build influence, improve reputation and earn trust. And that's exactly what the book focuses on. Sort of. The book defines 6 characteristics of trust agents: - Make your own game: Breaking with established ways and standing out from the crowd.
- One of us: Being immersed in your community and truly belonging.
- The Archimedes effect: Focusing your unique abilities to enhance your efforts -- finding leverage.
- Agent zero: Using your network/building relationships so that you have access.
- Human artist: Strong relationship builder -- recognizing that by genuinely helping others you can also help yourself.
- Build an army: You can't do it alone. Align with others, collaborate and create an avalanche.
The book is a quick read -- lots of good stories and examples. Both Chris and Julien make their money by being their own version of an online superstar. They use themselves as examples throughout the book and ... read more >>
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One powerful use of online communities is to help get new ideas into a business; taking advantage of the fact that many (if not most) of the best ideas for your business are likely to come from outside, from people who don’t work for you. There are some well know examples of businesses working with consumers on co-creation in this way: MyStarbucksIdea and Dell’s Ideastorm being among the most well known. Most of these sites use a similar process: people can join the community and then suggest their own idea, comment on existing ideas or vote for the ideas that they think are best. The best, most commented on or most voted for ideas are then responded to by the brand. They are an effective way for businesses to get ideas into their business and, more importantly perhaps, of showing customers some of their internal decision making and letting people who buy the product understand more about, and even influence, the processes by which it is made. Like any good online community, such ideas sites work best when they work with other social networks – interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, in forums and blogs. Going to where ... read more >>
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In a situation where you’re selling to multiple personalities, it’s best to first connect everyone on a common ground then articulate clearly what’s in it for each of them. The goal is to stimulate an engaging conversation that allows us to change perception, diagnose expectations and bring clarity to the dialogue. That’s the essence of developing a brand strategy – the foundation of your communication that builds authentic relationships between you and your audience. It is by defining your brand strategy that allows you to utilize marketing, advertising, public relations and social media to consistently and accurately reinforce your character. Without defining the core strategy, all channels of communication can often become a hit and miss expense. 
Here are 12 brand strategy principles I believe to be the key to achieve business success. 1. Define your brand It starts with your authenticity, the core purpose, vision, mission, position, values and character. Focus on what you do best and then communicated your inimitable strengths through consistency. There are many examples of companies acquiring other brands but only to sell them off later ... read more >>
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Your audience is your biggest asset, so take advantage of what they have to share with you. As a blogger with a readership, you’re in a fortunate position and can enlist in their help when you need them. Chances are, they’ll be eager to participate. 1. Ask the readers: If you’re looking for ideas, you can always run a column where you ask the readers a question and invite their answers in comments. You may even choose to expound upon one of the ideas written in a comment and make it a separate blog post (or series, if there are just so many great comments). At the same time, you may want to let the readers ask you a question. Don’t be afraid to share information about yourself and open up.
2. Utilize contact forms: Ensure that you launch your blog with a contact form so that your readers can contact you in some way. There are many plugins available that enable you to set up a simple contact form where your users can add questions and service providers can even send related pitches to your address. After you become an established blogger, you’ll likely be contacted by traditional media for quotes and you’ll likely even be asked to provide help on consulting for related ... read more >>
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As a teenager, I still have vivid memories of rushing home from wherever I was to see if my latest crush had called and left a message. Times have changed. Teenagers today don’t have to wait by the phone or check an answering machine — they might get a text or call ”on the cell” immediately after the school day ends. The point is, just as the frame of reference of a teen today is significantly different than that of a teen a decade ago, so are the outlets that teens use to communicate. The past few weeks have seen a number of articles and studies discussing this. A few weeks ago Matthew Robson, a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, wrote a highly touted paper on how teenagers consume media. Highlights included: - Most teenagers are not regular listeners of radio
- Teenagers do not read the newspaper
- Teenagers do not utilize yellow pages
- Teenagers are annoyed by advertising on websites
- Teenagers do not use Twitter, instead focusing on Myspace and Facebook
- Teenagers all have cell phones and finally…
- Teens text
To anyone who has a teenage child or regularly interacts with teenagers, no huge surprises ... read more >>
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