Measure Your Degree of Influence

Knowing what your ROI is on the efforts that you put forth is important because it helps you gauge what’s working and what’s failing. Making subtle adjustments allows you to focus your energy in the right direction and it can produce amazing results. Measurement as it relates to social media is a tricky thing because there isn’t necessarily a direct relationship  between a gaining a new fan or follower and a specific monetary value that impacts a brand’s bottom line. So, instead of trying to equate each brand loyalist to a dollar sign, let’s look at measuring your degree of social media influence by examining other areas. 

Retweets

Twitter users know that retweet (RTs) are one of the most powerful methods of extending their social reach. When you create a tweet that has sticking and sharing power, other tweeps are more likely to pass it along to others in their own networks and those people will pass it on to theirs and so on and so on. In this manner, a RT has the power to exponentially to spread your message and drive traffic back to your profile and your site or blog if you’ve tweeted a link. 

Link

Speaking of links, they are an integral part of your social media presence. Links are easy to shorten and share with others and they’re very easy to look at the type of traffic they’re producing. If you use a link shortener like Bit.ly you review how many clicks a particular link has received. You can also set-up Google Analytics for a particular page via link to get a better understanding of bounce rates, visitor habits and a slew of other data. 

If you actively participate in leaving blog comments you can include a link, as long as it’s relevant to your comment, back to your site or blog post. External links carry more weight and influence in the eyes of Google and therefore will help boost your site’s exposure on the search engine’s results page. The more links you have, the more easily you can be found because you’re viewed as a credible resource. 

Pings

Without getting to technical, pings are essentially communication methods that are used by computer networks that send out alerts when something new occurs. Pings are an effective way to promote your site/blog and you measure site traffic related to a ping to estimate your the level of influence that you have.

5 Reasons Why Authors Need Blogs

Blogging is more popular than ever and despite the fact that the majority of bloggers launch with a bang, many discover that there’s a considerable amount of work and commitment involved to prevent their blogs from fizzling out. If you’re an author, having a blog can be a powerful way to promote yourself and your published work. Here are a few reasons why authors need to jump on the blog bandwagon.

1.  Build a cyber sales channel.

Blogs are actually quite flexible in terms of content and functionality. For example, you can integrate e-commerce so that blog readers can purchase books directly from your site. You can tie-in your blog sales outreach to services like Clickbank and even Amazon.

2.  Connect with your audience.

You audience is much broader than just readers and fans. Through a blog you can meet publishers, literary agents and other authors to exchange information and build a social network to support your book.

3.  Boost book sales.

As an author you have the advantage of never running out of great ideas for blog posts. You can use our book to generate hundreds of topics for posts. Try using an excerpt from you book and expanding upon it, touch on something unique about one of your characters, discuss plot or print out a teaser page to encourage sales. Endless opportunities exist for blogging authors.

4.  Become search engine friendly.

The primary search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing, continually crawl the web looking for new content that is regularly updated. Every time you submit a post a search engine bot will come along and index it on the internet. That makes you more searchable and increases your exposure. People will have an easier time finding you and connecting with the material that you’re producing.

5.  Develop conversations with readers.

Blogs aren’t a one-way street. Commenting systems enable readers to share feedback and thoughts and regardless of whether they’re positive or negative, participating in a dialogue is an excellent way to learn how to improve and expand on things that are disliked or favored.

If you don’t have a blog, there’s no time like the present to start one today. Give your fingers a run for the money and start typing.

Press Release Tips

Using a press release to alert the media, bloggers and the search engines about business news and happenings is a fantastic way to drum up some interest and exposure. The thing about press releases is that their content is structured very differently from a blog post or article. By following a few simple guidelines you’ll be able to create a solid press release that can work to your advantage.

For all the authors out there this next mention will sound familiar. Just like a query letter, your press release needs to have a great headline. The purpose is to hook the interest of the reader, but also be succinct and direct at the same time. The headline should summarize what the press release about, but be catchy enough to entice further reading. Important: don’t include jargon or slang in your headline.

When you begin writing the body, or content of your press release, remember to stick to the facts. Press releases should contain a who, what, where, when and why. Additionally, they need to be written in a third-person voice and should be kept free of opinion. Editorializing should be avoided. Think of the release just like a news reporter would approach a story. Personal opinion is pushed aside so that people can make conclusions on their own. This is true with how your present the content in your release.

There are many different press release distribution sites on the Internet. To get a good sense of the style and tone of a release do some browsing on the web. Soon enough you’ll be able to distinguish between good and not so good, plus you’ll get a better understanding of how the components work synergistically to develop an informative piece.

The last part of your press release should be your boilerplate. The boilerplate is standard on every release and once you’ve written yours you will use it on all your releases going forward. It should contain a four to five sentences about who you are, your website and any other relevant information, such as a social media address or blog site. Boilerplates aren’t fancy, they simply summarize who the press release pertains to.

Visit corporate newsrooms to see good press release examples and to get inspired to write your own.

Top Social Media Rockstars PART 2

Last week we featured the first 10 out of 20 social media thought leaders that are movers and shakers within the industry. Today, we’re continuing with the second half of that list. Each individual featured has a hyperlink their blog site for easy following.

Pete Cashmore. The founder of Mashable at age 19, and also dubbed the Brad Pitt of social media, this Scottish entrepreneur was chosen as one of Inc Magazine’s 30 Under 30, Forbes’ Top 25 Web Celebs and the Huffington Posts’ Top 10 Game Changers 2009. He has a weekly column on CNN and his blog has been selected as a must-ready by Fast Company and PC Magazine. BusinessWeek has featured his site as one of the world’s most profitable blogs.

Liz Strauss. A highly influential blogger, Liz created SOBCon, a conference that combines the best minds and talent from the Internet together to present models, discuss insights and determine best practices – in essence, where virtual meets concrete.

Biz Stone. This co-founder of Twitter (and creative director too) has also helped launch Xanga, Blogger, Odeo and Obvious. He’s published two books about blogging:  Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content and Who Let the Blogs Out? These days it’s easier to follow Biz on Twitter. He currently has more than 1.6 million tweeps.

Brian Solis. As Principal of the award-winning new media marketing and branding agency, Future Works in Silicon Valley, Brian has paved the way for social media and PR 2.0. He is among the top 1.5% of all blogs tracked by Technorati and is ranked by AdAge Power 150 index of worldwide bloggers. His book, Engage, includes a forward from Ashton Kutcher.

Clay Shirky. Clay is an associate professor at New York University’s (NYU) graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Not only is he one of the most requested speakers on social media in the world, but he’s a writer and consultant on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His columns and writings have appeared in: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired and the Harvard Business Review.

Brian Halligan. Author of the best selling book, Inbound Marketing, Brian co-founded the online marketing and analytics company, Hubspot. Brian is a Sloan Fellow from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a thought leader on the social media scene.

Dave Morin. In 2009, Fast Company named Dave one of the ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’. Until recently, Dave was a senior platform manager at Facebook. He is partnering with  Napster creator, Shawn Fanning, to create a new startup.

Paul Chaney. Author of The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media, Paul understands at a granular level how social media tools can be used for marketing purposes.  Paul serves as president of the International Blogging and New Media Association, an organization dedicated to advancing the growth of blogging, podcasting and social media as an industry.

Mitch Joel. Author of the book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch has been called by Marketing Magazine the ‘Rock Star of Digital Marketing’. He is also known as one of North America’s leading digital visionaries.

Lee Odden. In Michael Miller’s book, Online Marketing Heroes, Lee was chosen as one of 25 online marketing experts to be featured. His experience and background in social media has been cited by The Economist, U.S. News & World Reprot and Fortune Magazine. Lee is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing.

Top 20 Social Media Rockstars (part 1)

Thought Leaders

It is important in any industry, no matter what level you are at, to keep learning. I am always looking around in my community to hear what others are thinking and compare notes. Thankfully many of the leaders in Social Media publish, sharing their knowledge and insights regularly. They are a joy to learn from. I put together this list so that you might benefit from their generosity as well.

There are quite a few thought leaders in social media. Identifying and selecting the best of the best is completely subjective, but I feel that the folks I’ve listed below are true stand outs in the pack. Without further adieu – the 20 best social media experts have been shared along with a bit of their backgrounds, accomplishments and key achievements (in no particular order).

Chris Brogan. Author of New York Times Bestseller, Trust Agents and president of New Marketing Labs in Boston, Chris is a true social media Guru. He has more than 108,000 followers on Twitter and 48,050 blog subscribers and I am one of them.

Gary Vaynerchuk. Famous wine aficionado, Gary is a living example of how to make social media work for your business and brand. He single-handedly transformed his family’s annual retail wine store profits from $4 million to $50 million through video posts on Wine Library TV. He has more than 850,000 followers on Twitter and 42,000 Facebook fans. Using  social media, he has democratized oenophilia.

Amy Jo Martin. Founder of digital integration and social media agency, Digital Royalty, Amy works with entertainment brands, professional athletes, sports teams and organizations to catapult them into the online here and now. She’s a social media maven to the core.

Jay Baer. Having worked with some of the biggest brands, Jay founded five companies and spent 15 years running digital marketing agencies. His highly popular blog, Convince and Convert, provides readers with social media strategic planning and consulting advice that is on the cutting edge of technology.

Felicia Day. A canadian-born actress and self-proclaimed ‘media geek’, Felicia is a social media phenomenon. She’s the producer of a YouTube web series called The Guild which garnered more than 15 million views and has appeared in the Internet musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It may not sound like much, but she’s an amazing expert at integrating her brand into social media. Nearly 1.7 million Twitter followers can’t be wrong.

David Meerman Scott. A marketing strategist and author, David has a knack for predicting social media trends before they occur. His best selling book, ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR’, is being followed-up with ‘Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs’. He is an an active online social media contributor and speaker.

Guy Kawasaki. A founding partner of technology venture capitalist group Garage and co-founder of online magazine rack site, Alltop.com, Guy has written nine business and marketing books. He began with Apple and has since transformed himself into a social media leader that consistently remains ahead of the curve with his social media insight.

Mari Smith. Dubbed by Fast Company as the ‘Pied Piper of Online’, Mari is a social media business coach and strategy expert for small businesses. She is her own best case study for brand development. She regularly travels the speaker circuit sharing advice and providing social media training to thousands. I love her trademark blue shirt.

Jeremiah Owyang. A partner at Altimeter Group and columnist for Forbes CMO Network, Jeremiah  interprets news as a web strategist and reviews technology products as they are related to social media. His blog is currently ranked at #28 by AdAge Power 150. I always come away with great insights after reading his blog.

Valeria Maltoni. Listed as a Top Marketer for 2009 in AdAge, Valeria’s blog Conversation Agent is one of the top online blogs in the world. She was handpicked by Fast Company as an expert blogger to write about creating conversations between the customer and marketer and built one of the first online communities connected to a magazine.

I’ll be posting the second half of the social media expert list next week. Stay tuned.

Meet me @ the blog around the corner

take a virtual drink…

“So, 3 men walk into a blog…”

“A what?”

“A blog”

“Huh?”

“A blog”

“I don’t get it”

Neither do the big ad agencies

——————————————————

Sometime in the near future “walking into a blog” will make sense. I, for one, spend more time with friends, colleagues, peers, admirers, detractors, acquaintances and strangers discussing, debating, and conversing on blogs than anywhere else. You could say I do a lot of “virtual drinking”.

Of course having spent time in bars, I have come to notice some striking similarities. Walk through the swinging doors into your corner blog and you will encounter some characters. Perhaps you have met a few of these folks too.

The Blogaholic – He’s ubiquitous. Every blog you go to she’s there. He rambles, believing his diatribe invaluable. She shouts it at everyone she sees. The worst is when the Blogaholic owns the Blog.

Mr. Pick Up Line – He hits on everyone, with his spammy comments, hoping the law of averages pays off. One of these times, he figures, his line won’t end up in Askimet.

The Local Gang – Whoa Nellie! These people rule with intimidation. They hang out together. The conversational familiarity, Joint Ventures, work history or what have you point to multiple levels of connection. Lord help you if one hits on your blog with a comment and is rebuffed. The gang is offended. Retaliation ensues, perhaps subtly, perhaps not.

The Politician – He’s the self-styled Mayor of the place. He knows everyone and has a diplomatic manner. He comments on everything but seems to say nothing. You never really know his opinion, because he seems to know just how to side step an argument. His cultivated neutrality however, leaves you wondering.

The Flirt – She’s a wink and a nod kind of girl. Her comments smile at everyone. His stories sound a bit too good to be true. He’s very flash. It’s all window dressing though. They just wanted your attention, a quick hit of traffic. The minute you try to take the conversation to a deeper level, they’re gone.

The Blogtender – He appears on corporate blogs. A paid facilitator, his assures that everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid. He smoothes ruffled feathers, spouts policy, and occasionally tosses out a troublemaker. His number one priority is to make sure you are having a good time, so you will come back.

This is what puts the SOCIAL in Social Media. People are still people after all. And if you are using a blog for marketing then you must understand applied human psychology. It’s the foundation of interaction on the new frontier – the blogosphere.

Recognize your cast of characters. Speak to them. They are your repeat customers, no matter whether they are new to your blog or not. They serve a purpose. Great marketing starts here.

By the way, did I miss anybody you know? Copyright 2009 Leili McKinley