The Truth About Social Media Marketing

Learn The Technology – But Focus On The Relationships

Do NOT Be a Shoemaker
In Cuba, they have a disparaging name for a person who has a job where they do the same thing over and over and over, but who never sees the big picture. This person never really understands why they do the same actions time after time after time, and they would never have a clue how to repair the process if something stopped working. Instead, they would just continue doing the same thing, again and again and again.

Cubans call that person a “shoemaker.” Somebody once said, “When the only thing a person can do is use a hammer, they tend to think everything is a nail.” THAT perfectly describes a shoemaker.

You’ve no doubt seen a lot of internet marketers who were shoemakers. Do you remember back in the day when promotional email came to you without your first name anywhere in the email? But marketers have always known that the more personal they can make their promo pieces, the greater the response. So they began to capture your first name and they stuck it at the start of the email to replace “Dear Friend.” And you got the email with your name at the top and thought, "Oh, this is personal." So you read it.

So the marketers figured, “If one is good, three would be better.” And they inserted your name 3 times in the email.

Then they figured, “If three is good, a hundred would be better.” You’ve surely seen emails from these shoemakers.

Then every shoemaker on the web started putting first names in all their email subject lines, and we all caught on, and we started deleting emails that came with our name in the subject line.

So the innovative marketers adjusted. They captured your phone number and your mailing address and your dog's name to insert in your emails. Once this tactic filtered down to the shoemakers, you started getting emails something like this:

Jack,

Doesn't it feel great every evening when you step through your front door at P.O. Box 365, Anytown, OK 75555 and Rex jumps up and licks your face and you realize you are finally home from another tough day at the office? Huh, Jack, my man? Doesn’t that really feel great?

Isn’t it just the biggest hoot to see how a shoemaker can make personalization offensive? They seem to intuitively know exactly how to de-personalize personalization. The only thing they don’t understand is why YOU don’t buy everything they email you about.

And that's really where we are today. The shoemaker figures that the more personal they can make that single email they’re sending to 100,000 people, the better the response.

And every recipient thinks, "Terrific. Here's one more hotshot internet marketer – probably 20 years old! – trying to trick me into thinking he's my buddy. I know the only thing he cares about is getting his hand on my wallet. I'd love to have Rex tear this guy’s throat out."

A lot of marketers tell you how simple it all is. They say internet marketing is just a numbers game. Send out a sincere, personalized email to every name on your list every day. Each email hard-sells and then links to some different affiliate product. This model should produce a steady stream of income.

But for some reason, that model doesn't seem to work very long for very many – if any.

Which brings us to social networking, which is the ultimate in personalization. And it's not phony. It's real, one-to-one personal contact. You can build REAL "like, know, & trust" relationships with real people. That is what the social networking community expects. That is why they are there. They want to connect and build relationships of value with people who share their interests.

They share one other characteristic, too. They don’t want to be sold to, ever. They hate salespeople, and they can see them coming a mile away. So shoemakers, stay out!

“Breadcrumb Marketing”
OK. So you’re not a shoemaker. But in social networking, you are also not Lee Iacocca or Donald Trump. Your model for success in social networking is Hansel & Gretel. You’re helpful and personable, even perky. As you walk and talk, you drop a breadcrumb here and there. You never, ever point directly at a breadcrumb and say, “LOOK! IT’S A BREADCRUMB!” Instead, as you tweet or mixx or sphinn or stumble, you get very, very good at coming up with innovative ways to get people to look for and find those breadcrumbs on their own … without them realizing that it’s all part of your plan.

Over time, you figure out you can drop a crumb by the barn on Monday, another next to the big oak tree on Tuesday, one by the swimming pool on Wednesday, on top of a toadstool on Thursday, and drop one on the front steps on Friday. They’re all in plain sight. If you can enchant your followers to just look around, pretty soon they start stumbling onto the breadcrumbs and picking them up to examine. And they follow you home.

And what if, instead, you drop a breadcrumb and then yell, “HEY HEY HEY! LOOKY HERE! IT’S A BREADCRUMB! OHMIGOSH! HOW ON EARTH DID THAT BIG, FAT, DELICIOUS BREADCRUMB EVER GET HERE? WHAT A MYSTERY!! HURRY, HURRY, HURRY! YOU BETTER PICK IT UP BEFORE SOMEBODY ELSE DOES! (Not a single person in these social networks signed up for a sales pitch. What do YOU think they’ll do?)

Or … some shoemakers even hire an expert to design an Automated High-Capacity Breadcrumb Thrower, which they aim at the social networks … until they get shut down. Or they use any of dozens of other methods of gaming the social networks for little to no gain for 8 hours a day VS getting socially involved and interacting like a real person in each network for 8 hours a day ... same time spent but the latter yields exponential results while fostering real relationships with your target audience. The latter is an asset building plan that continues to build momentum, month after month, year after year. The former will yield temporary results that must be repeated over and over again. Which is the smarter play? … 8 hours of gaming a system for temporary to no results or 8 hours of relationship building for long term, compounding, results?

Are you a shoemaker or a “real” social networker?

Bottom line: you absolutely cannot direct sell in a social networking environment. BUT you can definitely socially network and build strong relationships faster and go viral quicker at less expense than you could ever do by advertising. This is the epiphany... the big WOW of social networking.

At first this seems counter-intuitive… You have something to sell and you’ve heard all this buzz about social marketing and now you’re telling me I can’t sell anything?!?

What you sell in a social setting is yourself. Once you sell yourself then people will follow your breadcrumbs home. Not because they feel “sold” but because they genuinely want to... Because they like you and trust you as an expert in your industry. Once this happens they will buy from you… over and over and over again... It's a simple numbers game that works over and over again. Most people think it's hard to do ... You will be pleasantly surprised when you find out it is easier than people think and more powerful than the critics would have you believe.

By the time you finish this lesson you will firmly understand the mindset required to effectively use social networks for marketing purposes. Hopefully by now you are starting to see that social media marketing is nothing like traditional Internet marketing at all.

Why We Created The Social Marketing Blueprint Formula
The Formula is a simple method to understand which social networking technologies you should choose for your business. When I say technology, I mean all the social networks out there. Digg, Sphinn, Mixx, Twitter, Propeller, Stumbleupon, etc, etc, etc. are just technologies. They are all online software applications. Just like any other software, some have more features than others. Social networks are simply software applications that allow human connectivity… They are “technologies”.

That’s perfect. So the first thing you have to do is figure out which online social marketing applications (technologies) your target audience is now using. If you already know, great. If not, ask your prospects or customers which social networking sites they find most useful, where they spend their time. You need to know this first to make best use of The Social Marketing Blueprint Formula.

So far, so good. But there is something missing. Once you know which social networks to use …

… what do you do next?

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of “Groundswell,” make the following statement which sums up the point of this lesson:

“It’s important to understand these technologies [social networks], but the technologies are the detail, and it’s tempting to get sucked into the detail. So many words have been written about blogs and blogging, social networks, and user-generated content that you might think that understanding those technologies will equip you for the new world.

Wrong.

First, the technologies [social networks] change rapidly. And second, the technologies are not the point. The forces at work are.”

OK. So what are those “forces at work”? A lot of shoemakers now use social networks as a new way to conduct traditional internet marketing activities. While this may work a little, the real power comes when you focus on the relationships within the social networks. Relationships are the “force”… Focus on the force… As Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker … “Feel the force Luke” (Movie Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back 1980).

1. Observe – Using resources at your disposal you observe content that is published that is of interest to your target audience. (First, of course, describe your target audience. You’ve got to know them inside out. Demographics? Hot buttons? What REALLY motivates them?)

2. Gather – As you locate meaningful information, Gather it into the technologies (social networks) that you have chosen. (You must find very good resources for documents, audios, videos, photos, pdfs, software, etc., that would be in high demand by your target market… Gather this information into the social networks you have chosen.)

3. Reward – Spend time in each network Rewarding other members by voting for their stuff (if you find it useful). Comment on the posts they make, reply to comments you receive. This is all rewarding for the recipient and is integral to fostering relationships.

4. Engage – Use the content that you Gather to engage your target audience. Use the tools available in the social networks you have chosen to Engage your friends and followers.

5. Seek – Look for friends in your target audience who also Observe, Gather, Reward and Engage. (As you do your “Gather” step, keep a sharp eye out for content that would appeal to others who want to Engage. You are looking for networkers, and the more value you can bring them, the more of them you will find and the more will find you.)

All relationships are founded, fostered and built by using this formula either online or off. Your relationship with your family members has this formula at its core. For example, you visit the grocery store and “observe” the high price of milk. You then “Gather” that and other supporting information into your memory banks. After that, you “Engage” a member of your family with this information. In relationships you “Seek” others who may be interested in hearing about the high price of milk (aka. your target audience).

As in all relationships, your content must be targeted to your market – what they value, what they want. If your gathering and engaging isn’t relevant, then your relationships will suffer in life as well as on the internet.

The Relationship Development Formula (Observe, Gather, Reward, Engage and Seek) forms an acronym O.G.R.E.S.

Consider the “force” a bunch of OGRES they can either be nice, friendly, accepting and relationship worthy or they can be nasty beasts that can literally destroy you and your credibility.

There are two kinds of OGRES, the friendly ones and the nasty ones. The single easiest way to upset OGRES is to provide them watered down content, sales pitches, blatant advertising and spam… This activity will not foster relationships and represents watered down marketing that is quickly spotted, consumed and subsequently turns friendly OGRES into nasty ones.

In the movie Gremlins (1984), Gizmo the cute cuddly Mogwai could quickly turn into a nasty OGRE (a Gremlin) if it was fed after midnight. Just as you shouldn’t feed the Mogwai after midnight, don’t feed your audience sales messages, spam, watered down content or irrelevant content. Follow the rules and your OGRES will remain nice and they will follow you home.