The post Teens Increasingly Rely On Social Media For News appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Situations like these have led many to question the effectiveness of influencer advertising. Placing the reputation of your brand in the hands of a social media celebrity, inexperienced in advertising, may not be a great idea. Today we’ll dive into the detailed differences between influencer and advocate advertising.

In this corner we have…influencers

Last week, the New York Times had an article about how cool influencers are now being careful with their endorsements bringing up the story of Ricky Dillon. A social celebrity with millions of followers who, when he posted a photo of a couple personalized Coke cans, comments included queries if it was a paid sponsorship. It was. Audiences are keenly aware of this form of advertising in their midst and are definitely intelligent enough to recognize it.

Let’s be clear about what social/celebrity influencers are – they are the new paid reach, a different version of an ad. Much like an ad, you pay, they post. The length of the relationship is as long as the brand is paying for it. To the FTC, it is enough of an ad that they want to make sure the unsuspecting consumers are aware and recently updated guidelines that posts like this should indicate #sponsored (read #igotpaid).

Can this type of marketing be effective? Yes, it definitely can and has the capacity to create instantly large reach to a relatively targeted audience based on your choice of influencer. I’m unsure of the demographic makeup of Kim Kardashian’s 42 Million Instagram followers…but there are 42 million of them. All indications are that this type of advertising is more effective than a traditional paid ad, but I have yet to see a sizeable test on the business impact or efficiency of influencer vs. retargeting/programmatic.

The influencers dilemma

Let’s be equally clear as to what social/celebrity influencers are not. They are not trusted like a peer or advocate. Likewise, the facts regarding advocates do not translate to influencers.

• 92% of people trust peers and advocates…not influencers.

• 84% of people trust peers and advocates before ads…not influencers. The trust factor goes notably down for influencers.

  • Does anybody trust a celebrity influencer that actually uses a Samsung phone? After Manny Pacquiao, Ellen Degeneres, Kate Upton and David Beckham all tweeted their love of Galaxy followed by tweets from their iPhone, probably not.

• People are 4-10x more likely to act on the recommendation of a trusted peer or advocate…again, not influencers.

• An influencer impression is not worth 5-250x a paid impression like a word-of-mouth impression. It is simply a paid impression featuring a social celebrity.

Finally, when talking about the social/celebrity influencer, let’s examine the word ‘influence’:

in·flu·ence ˈinflo͝oəns/ noun. the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.

To have an effect on behavior – in the case of influencer marketing…get people to buy stuff. But, if people don’t trust it like they trust brand advocates – how much are they buying? How much actual influence do they have? Very few, in my opinion, meet the definition of true influencer. Oprah is probably the best example of a true influencer – if she talked about a book on her book club, sales went wild. Bonafide influence. But even she fell prey to influencer mishap when tweeting about how much she loved her Microsoft Surface…from her iPad.

The advocate right hook

By comparison, building brand advocates and a brand advocate community avoids many of these pitfalls. Real brand advocates have a passion for your brand and while influence can’t be taught/built/manufactured, passion for your brand cannot. They’re trusted by their peers and social networks and are viewed as there to help. You build a two-way relationship with your advocates, they get an exclusive experience and you get to harness their enthusiasm. The most common question – “what’s in it for them?” or “how much do you pay them?” – has an unexpected answer: you don’t pay them. The playbook would say to surprise and delight them, give them something unique that others can’t have, but the relationship with the brand is what they cling to.

An empowered brand advocate creates a ripple effect that reaches out to 8! – not an exclamation point, but factorial – 8x7x6 etc. = 40,000+. These advocates will be those who are engaged in the 100 or so conversations about brand each day that you aren’t. Build a social brand advocate community and you can gain so much impact. Genuine reach that is trusted that people actually take action on. You can gain insights for marketing and product development, procure valuable user generated content and the biggest part of it – it’s sustainable. You don’t need to reload a new campaign next week or next month. As a matter of fact, remove the military terms from your advocacy plans. It’s a movement, not a strategy. They’re people, not targets.

At this point, many marketers would be reaching for the credit card wondering how much these advocate communities cost and how quickly can it be up and running. Herein lies the rub – you can’t just buy advocates – you need to find them, foster them and ignite their collective enthusiasm to become a community. While various tools can identify, nurture and build enthusiast relationships within your social audiences into an advocate community, it takes time.

In the time-warped world of social media marketing we live in, sometimes business demands immediate returns, which is why ads and influencer marketing will continue to exist and should be a part of your strategy. To truly scale the social word-of-mouth about your brand, it takes investing a little time, but the impact felt will far exceed paid media results and your C-suite’s expectations for years to come.

The post Who Wins in the Battle of Influencer VS. Advocate Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Internet Marketers are Master Email List Builders

Online marketers know most people don’t buy on their first visit to the website. So what do they do? They give you an amazing piece of content you really want in exchange for your email address. In fact, the best internet marketers don’t even try to sell you on their primary website pages. They work really hard to capture your email address because the goal is to build a marketable database that can be leveraged to drive revenue.

This topic is top of mind because I recently had an experience with an internet marketer through my son who wanted to learn how to master talking to girls. I know you’re probably giggling a little, but he’s a little shy and he wanted to build his confidence. I’m all about building my son’s confidence so I agreed. What I didn’t expect was how impressed I would be by the marketing that followed. What I saw quickly became one of my personal favorite examples of solid list building and follow up marketing. To illustrate, I’ll share the site my son found, Double Your Dating, run by David Deangelo aka Eben Pagen. Now, I’m not sure why Eben chose to use an alias for himself on this website, maybe it’s because he didn’t want the girls he was attracting to know he sold tips for others to do the same, maybe it’s because he didn’t want his friends and family to find out, or maybe it’s because he’s a scam artist. I don’t know. But what I do know is Eben is a smart marketer. And business marketers can learn a lot from this approach to selling online.

Take a look at his home page below.  What do you see? A HUGE arrow that you can’t ignore pointing to his opt-in box.

What does your opt-in box look like? How noticeable is it? Does it say “sign up for our newsletter” with a form? 

 Here’s a tip. Signing up for a newsletter is a huge red flag that says, “SIGN UP AND LET ME SPAM YOU WITH STUFF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT.” People don’t sign up for “newsletters” anymore, especially business newsletters, so you are going to have to get more creative if you want to build your email database.

Internet Marketers Understand the Power of FREE Content

offer the visitor something free in exchange for an email address

Eben uses several interesting content offers in exchange for your email address. My personal favorite is “an easy, effective way to tell if she’s ready to be kissed so you won’t get rejected.” Seriously, you know you want to go and put in your email address just to find out what he recommended. As a woman I can say it was brilliant, by the way! He also offers an exclusive report, scripts and a ton of stuff for someone who really wants to figure out how to attract women. And all of it is free. This page is designed to trigger on the emotional needs for the product the website sells. It doesn’t mention that he’s selling a product; rather it offers the visitor something free in exchange for an email address. And here’s some inside information. The stuff he offers here isn’t good, it’s AMAZING! My son poured over every piece and even brought them to the dinner table to ask me if I thought they were good recommendations. Guess what, they weren’t just good tips, they were brilliant tips that would actually work and help my son build his confidence without risking rejection.

Do you offer content in exchange for an email sign up? If you had to rate your content on a scale from 1 (crap) to 10 (Holy Sh!t That’s Amazing), where would it fall?

Internet Marketers Understand the Power of Trust

The other thing I want to highlight is the video Eben recorded for this page. Clearly, he knew he needed to build trust and credibility with his potential buyers and he knew video was the way to do it. You can see his confident but not cocky demeanor; hear why he created the program and what the result was for him. And honestly, he does it all without ever making it sound like a sales pitch. It’s brilliant. Now, he also understands things like production value and lighting so it looks professional. After all, at the end of all of this, he does have something to sell, if you’re interested. I would embed the video here for you, but the only place you can get it is on his website.  But feel free to check it out here.

Would you trust your company after watching the videos on your website? How are you building trust?

Internet Marketers Understand the Power of Passive Income

Internet Marketers do significant testing before they build their products so they don’t waste time

The beauty of the entire Double Your Dating series is that it is a product Eben developed years ago. And it continues to earn money today with little to no effort from Eben. In fact, he’s on to new things and has launched several other products since this one. The goal was to put forth a lot of effort in the beginning to build something great and then to let it continue to sell itself.

Now one of the secrets is that Internet Marketers do significant testing before they build their products so they don’t waste time. They test whether or not the market wants them, how much they will pay for them and even test each product before they sell it. It’s not easy, but as you can see it’s the gift that keeps giving.

Does your business have an offering that generates passive income for the company? Is there a new online product that could be developed to start one? Is there value in making money when you sleep? Heck yeah!

Internet Marketers Understand the Power of Affiliate Marketing

The beauty of products that are complete is that the cost to create them is a sunk cost. The value in selling them through third parties and paying a hefty commission for those sales is extremely high. Most Internet Marketers I’ve seen spend a lot of time recruiting affiliates to help sell their products. They pay them really well to make it worth their time. They provide them with all of the tools they need to sell them. And they rely on affiliates with large email lists, not heavy web traffic. Why? Because email is where the magic happens.

Does your company use affiliates to sell their products? Would an affiliate network attract a valuable market your company wouldn’t otherwise reach? Would affiliates help get a new product to market faster?

Internet Marketers Use Email Marketing to Convert Sales

At the end of the day, it is the automated email campaigns on the back of this that walk the buyer through the emotional triggers, objections and increasing offers that lead to a sale. The email campaigns are smart. They offer you a ton of information. Each email is valuable (if you really are interested in the product they offer) and ultimately you can choose to keep getting the free advice or you can buy the product and take it a level further. Plus, if you don’t buy their product, internet marketers offer you other types of products you could be interested in through companies that they are affiliate marketers for. This is where Internet Marketers get a bad rap.

Here’s the big difference in what they do versus what companies do. They don’t use heavy HTML design and many don’t use any. They use an email that actually contains an “email” that is written like a human on the other end wrote it. It contains links to resources, which I’m sure are all tracked making it technically an “HTML” email, but there aren’t crappy graphics all over the place. It is personable communication that draws you into the story the email is telling.

Other marketers feel this is spamming their audience, tricking them, and that it isn’t an authentic way to market.

But I’ll say this. When my son signed up for the tips from Double Your Dating, I had no doubt we would receive offers to buy the other products. But my son and I enjoyed the free tips so it was worth it. At some point, we were convinced that this was something we wanted and we did buy it. I didn’t feel like I was tricked. I knew what I was getting into, maybe it’s because I’m a marketer. But, hey, anyone who doesn’t like it can unsubscribe and never think about it again.

What do your emails look like? Is HTML causing your audience to categorize your emails as spam? Are you continuing the story in email or are you over-selling, over-offering, over-discounting?

So at the end of the day, like ‘em or hate ‘em, I think we all have a thing or two to learn from internet marketers. And you probably don’t even realize how many you are already following. I know we are evaluating Social Media Explorer to see how we can take some of these lessons to heart.

What do you think? Are Internet Marketers smart or evil? Would any of the lessons help your business? Leave a comment and join the discussion.

Want to see some internet marketers in action? Check out Jeff Walker, Frank Kern, Amy Porterfield, Mari Smith and Social Media Examiner. All of these may sell different things, but they are all smart internet marketers.

The post Businesses Have Something to Learn from Internet Marketers appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Many people talk and tweet about leadership. When the COO of Facebook and the CEO of American Express talk about leadership, it is important to pay attention.

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and AMEX’s Ken Chenault sat down to discuss the topic of leadership earlier this year during the #fMC in New York City. The Facebook Marketing Conference was a day-long event designed to announce the latest products and features driving business growth through the use of social technology. During #fMC, Sandberg and Chenault warmed the hearts of marketers and sparked the corporate creative spirit as the audience watched the two successful C-level executives discuss leadership during a fireside chat.

Indeed, these two juxtaposed juggernauts have earned the title of leadership. One, a newcomer tech giant trailblazing towards Wall Street. The other, a financial institution, steady and consistent as powerful as the bell towers of Notre Dame. As we seek solutions to lead in today’s digital divide, tips from the tech to traditional can help.

Facebook: A fresh and forward-moving example

Last year Facebook boasted of 680 million active monthly users. According to an amendment filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, the tech giant’s value has skyrocketed. Their continued growth includes a recent acquisition of Instagram and now claims 901 million active monthly users, with 488 million mobile users a month. Responsible for new friendships, influential online communities and razor sharp advertising targeting capabilities, this social technology game changer has proven leadership capabilities that business leaders must respect.

AMEX leadership: Old as gold

This shiny gold card carrying financial institute was founded 162 years ago. Like a fine wine, this traditional establishment has only matured and grown its wealth of wisdom as it evolves, keeping a smooth pace in today’s marketplace. Once catering to the business traveler, AMEX has shifted their market focus to the small business owner. With partnerships and alliances with social tools like Facebook and Foursquare, this traditional institution has earned the social creds to not only be included as a cutting-edge market leader, but also to be reverend and respected as one of the leaders in social marketplace.

One common theme Facebook and AMEX exude? Leadership.

Personal, Professional Leadership

These two chief executives have earned the right to speak on the topic of leadership. On a personal level, the stories they could share of their own career climb could teach us a thing or two as individuals. Both leaders represent diversity. As a female executive of a tech company and an African-American executive at a financial institute, there is no doubt their positions were earned by tried and true leadership qualities.

From a business perspective in today’s marketplace however, there are key points to understand as professionals seek to lead their businesses upward and onward, beyond the digital divide. As Sandberg led this fireside chat discussion, here are the leadership secrets Chenault shared on how AMEX has approached today’s tech-driven marketplace and maintained a position of leadership:

LINK

Link with people at a personal level. Inspire hope in others that leads to innovation. Don’t be consumed with competition that you lose sight of who you are. Own your identity and brand, never allow others to define you.

CONNECT

Connect and build trust through consistent thoughts and actions. Without trust, progress and innovation is stalled. Content should never be an accessory, but part of the relationship. Provide relevant content through engaging socially.

DRIVE

Drive change. Reinvent yourself as needed to reach your optimal purpose. Listen to where the needs are and what the market is wanting. Drive is not coasting or riding shot-gun in today’s digital era.

Chenault’s LCD approach can be scaled to today’s challenges we face where leadership is needed. This fireside chat represents proven leadership we can all apply. Throughout the discussion, Chenault shared the importance of trust as a foundation to leadership.

Would you agree that the LCD leadership principles built on trust is a solid approach to today’s digital divide? The comments are yours.

The post Two Juxtaposed Juggernauts Talk Leadership appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Eyes turned to the assembly line, we fixated on efficiency. And we steadily lost sight of emotional and spiritual needs. We squeezed the joy and artistry right out of the village.

We sell stuff soullessly now.  We don’t spend much time thinking about ways to deliver more “happy” to people.

1. We’ve forgotten what it means to be grateful for a customer’s trust.
2. We demonstrate superficial levels of customer appreciation.
3. Our sense of entitlement has us numb to price sensitivity.
4. We lost all sincerity behind “Thank You for your business.” Hint: it shouldn’t be a rote, mindless, autonomic response. You should totally own it. Eyes up.
5. We see kindness as efforts which require too many resources with no direct, immediate financial impact.

Abundant clues suggest that people as a whole need to change where these values are concerned. Change is no easy feat, but the rewards are rich: when the people minding businesses change, the businesses become capable of sustained change. The kind of change that’s palpable, lived daily by employees and noticed regularly by customers.  Repeat:  noticed regularly by customers.

The business that evolves, the one that surprises and delights customers by demonstrating a generous, thankful spirit will stand out. The brand will get noticed.

31 Flavors Of Thank You – Choose Yours!

Danke. Merci beaucoup. Efcharisto (that’d be Greek). Taak (Islandic). There are many ways to say thank you.  When was the last time you said it to a customer (in any language, in any manner) with true consciousness and deep intent? The “Thanks, Dick” section of your auto-generated email signature line? Nope, doesn’t count. At all.  And that 1-800 survey on the bottom of your biz’s transaction receipts? Old, overdone news. Nobody believes survey responses actually lead to organizational or operational change, least of all your customers.

Consumers have grown accustomed to distant, inflexible, policy-wielding businesses. As consumers ourselves, we know the warranty claim on our flat screen is going to be rejected, and we can count on the cable guy missing his 12-5pm appointment. The cleaner is definitely not going to replace the slightly scorched silk blouse in that gorgeous poppy pink.  (*sniffs.*)

These types of stiff-shouldered, palm-out shut-downs are precisely why now is the time for your business to break out and get noticed for saying thank you, for giving generously.  I’m talking about something more widespread and institutionalized than the rogue customer service member serruptitiously doing some magic to your account with her keyboard because you gave her your puppy face. I’m talking about a cultural shift to align a brand with customer needs because as a business, you believe in delivering more than what’s expected.

“Be Kind” As A Growth Strategy

Demonstrating brand kindness will get you noticed. Here’s how:

• Delivering the unexpected gives people something positive to think about, especially observant non-customers. (or “not yet” customers)
• Once you do it, your competition can never own it. You’ll have the preemptive edge.
• Surprised and delighted customers are contagious. They infect others. On Facebook and Twitter and Little League bleachers.
• A little kindness can go a long way in balancing the scales if your biz ever has a flub-up.
• Kindness doesn’t dilute brand equity or profit margin.  It’s like the sales strategy that keeps on giving.
• Kindness is a long term investment that compounds through word of mouth.
• Live brand kindness long enough and you’ll have a compelling story to tell.
• Empathy? Yeah, that’s powerful stuff. Customers appreciate it.
• The kind brand is an approachable brands. Approachable brands occasionally screw up. We forgive those folks because they’ve shown they’re human.
• Get behind them (customers) and they’ll be behind you. Easy-peasy.
• You’ll learn more useful customer insights by being open and receptive than you would have with a standard Comments Box mentality.
• It’s simply the right way to do business.

Read more about this line of thinking over at Trendwatching in their brief “Random Acts of Kindness:  Why kind, human brands will thrive in a connected economy.”

What are your thoughts about leading a kinder, gentler business? Can this philosophy drive a culture and a sustainable business?

The post Is there profit in a kinder, gentler business? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why did you choose restaurant X?  What makes it special?

Maybe it’s the handy valet or the great view.  The local suppliers, free-range meat, or nods to the diet du jour on the menu. It could be the funky interior or the layout just made for comfortable conversation.  You may have made the pick because of the interesting fare and prompt, thorough customer service.  The relaxed atmosphere or music may be your thing.  Or it may be the right combination of good food and reasonable price.  I just hope it’s not because you’re one of those people who like to drop a Benjamin for what amounts to a cup of frou-frou food on a sauce-drawn miniature plate. Puh-leeze!

The fact is, there’s a secret combination of ingredients working together to create a certain chemistry that just works for you (hopefully those that you’re entertaining, too), and likely many other diners like you.  That certain elusive je ne sais quoi that Micky D’s doesn’t capture, even with extra props for the new fruity smoothies.

You’ve had good times there, eaten good food there, taken refuge there when nursing a few wounds (I completely agree, you *should* have snagged that promotion.).  Some of the rational benefits of your choice are getting folded into some of the emotional accoutrement.  Things get melded together.  The restaurant is much more than simply a place to snag a sandwich.

When rational benefits meet emotional responses, transformative developments take shape for business.  Making and keeping a believeable, consistently achieveable (through a focused model, regimented training, tested process, and feedback loops) brand promise will play out in earned credibility.  The kind that spreads organically.  If you mix in “surprise and delight” variables often associated with service – being greeted by name, receiving special accommodations, garnering personal attention, and exclusive or special occasion offers – and a business can rise above a mass of peers.  It can attract and fulfill a clientele ready, willing, and able to spend $20 on the lunch that wasn’t.  Lunch at your favorite restaurant with your best girl friend who needed a pick-me-up isn’t lunch. It’s soul food.

A business intent on building lasting affinity with customers will recognize that success is sometimes not about achieving scale, but rather about delivering special.  I’ve paid extra for that.  And I’ve referred friends with confidence, too.

What about you? Where have you dined recently – or received any personal service – where you felt the brand was really paying attention to the details, and the front-line staff knew how critical it was to execute according to the secret recipe?

Image of Comme Ca from Zagat.

The post The Secret Is In The Sauce appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Not a bit of it matters. If you’re looking at influence, you aren’t looking deep enough. It’s like judging a car by its color and not its engine. Influence is only a coat of paint. What drives influence is trust. He who has earned the most trust wins.

Do you trust Guy Kawasaki? Perhaps. But when you find out he has a team of people tweeting on his behalf, your trust in him is likely diminished. He has influence, but not as much trust as some. Do you trust Perez Hilton? I sure hope not … or at least not for most things. But Perez Hilton has a great deal of influence.

The difference in influence and trust is the difference in quantity and quality. Perez Hilton can get you a lot of eyeballs, but are they the right eyeballs and will they do anything with your information? Louis Gray won’t get you a lot of eyeballs, in comparison, but the ones he gets are golden. He gets them because his audience trusts him.

Stop looking for the candy apple red and start looking for the V6. It will make you a smarter PR pro.

The post It’s Not About Influence, It’s About Trust appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Search Marketing Expo events, one of which I proudly attended and learned a great deal from, are heavy with search marketers staking claim on the social media space. Nearly all recommend social media as a component of good search engine optimization. Some offer the claim they can optimize your social media efforts. While each individual or firm is different and there are exceptions to every rule, for corporations and brands with millions of dollars at stake, this is like trusting your speechwriting to the copier guy.

Okay, perhaps a harsh simile, but bear with me.

Search marketers are individuals focused on increasing your website’s visibility in search engine results pages. Those results are dictated by algorithms (mathematics and computer programming). Thus many (but not all) search marketers are a descendent of web programmers and developers.

Social media optimization is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. The keyword phrase – my, the irony – is “generating publicity.” Would you trust your publicity generation to the ASP.net developer in your IT department, particularly considering you probably don’t know what an ASP.net developer does?

Certainly, and due to pedigree, I am biased, but social media optimization, strategy and programming, the leading component of which seems to be content generation, is best left to those whose job it is to generate content. Public relations professionals, journalists and other professional communicators offer the most qualified skill set. While I will be the first to admit these professional groups are, in large part, behind the curve on developing the appropriate expertise, would it not be wiser to equip the communicators with the resources and training needed to guide your social media efforts since communication is the key to success in that arena?

Edward R. Murrow, arguably one of the finest communicators of the last century, perhaps put it best:

“The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.”

My point is not to say search marketers and social media practitioners shouldn’t mix. As my friends at Vandelay Design affirm in their thorough dissection of the differences between both, “I really think that the two work together rather than separately.” And, to clarify, search marketers, developers and programmers, IT professionals and marketers of the more traditional training are all instrumental components of an effective marketing strategy, on-line and off. PR folks aren’t the only answer, just the most qualified leaders in finding one.

Related Posts You’ll Find Interesting

1. SEO vs. SMO (Required Reading, IMHO)
2. Social Media vs. SEO & Search Marketing
3. Search vs. Social Media (Podcast)
4. The Importance of Social Media Marketing
5. The Subjectivity Of A Search Engine Marketing Recommendation

[tags]search marketing, social media optimization, social media, trust, strategy[/tags]

The post Why You Shouldn’t Trust Social Media To Search Marketers appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

1) Companies: Hire the right employees that have integrity, sound business judgment, and know how to communicate both internaly and externally
2) Companies: Trust in these employees to be your ambassadors to the world, give them the benefit of the doubt, and let them self-correct amongst themselves. I also advise instituting internal communication tools to help them, and setting down basic guidelines…often created BY the employees.
3) Employees: Those out in the social sphere should act their best, demonstrate your ability, and try not to embarrass the company. If you do make a mistake, quickly apologize, correct the mistake. Always act in an ethical manner.
4) Social Sphere: Thatâ€s everyone else in the world, is to simply recognize the challenges as companies move forward in this new world.

Jeremiah has long been a thought leader in the realm of social media and web strategy, but his ability to cut through the clutter and simplify an issue is why I read him. You can find him at www.web-strategist.com/blog/ or go ahead and subscribe to his RSS Feed here.

Oh, and I’m sure Crystal will chime in with a comment.

IMAGE: From www.pragia.cz

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