Your topics are what fuel you word of mouth. A great one isn’t a slogan or a generic brand message — it’s something simple that spreads easily among friends. And remember, if your topic works well in a traditional press release, it’s probably a bad one.
What to look for:
- Emotional. People share things that make them happy — the funny, surprising, and remarkable elements of products and experiences.
- Portable. A portable topic is something that can be slapped in a blog post, an e-mail signature, or a T-shirt. If it’s too complicated or needs explaining, nobody will repeat it.
- Repeatable. If someone has to make an effort to remember what to say, they won’t say anything.
Social media isn’t a silver bullet for marketers. It’s more like a publicity garden that takes constant care to thrive, David Armano writes. If you’re launching or expanding a social media push, take scalability into account. Don’t count on being able automate social interactions. It’s going to take real, honest-to-goodness people to create, spread and maintain a social presence. Will you have the manpower you need for the next stage of development? The one after that? The key is matching up a great idea with even better planning. Check out this story and other nifty links, culled from the awesomeness that is SmartBrief on Social Media.
An article by Kermit Pattison in the Small Business section of New York Times last week got us thinking. It’s about the trend in small businesses toward outsourcing data entry, writing, Web design, accounting, HR and payroll to remote, “virtual teams”. That all seems moderately reasonable. This sentence, though, stopped us in our tracks: “Some businesses even are hiring freelancers to set up and manage their corporate profiles on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.”
Hold it right there. 
“Outsourcing traditional media is a great cost-saving idea (in fact, I am a freelance radio buyer if you need one) but having an outsider do your social networking is a big mistake.” says Stacey Kane of Washington D.C.-based Mexican restaurant chain California Tortilla.
Entrusting your brand’s voice to a bunch of strangers-– or anyone not directly integrated and passionate about your brand-– is risky business. The idea behind social media is to be authentic– for it to really BE YOU. (read more…)
Making the leap to marketing via social media can be tricky, even for an experienced entrepreneur. It’s not just that social networks can be labor intensive, they can also be deceptively difficult to use. While getting a Twitter or Facebook account is a snap, there’s a steep learning curve for figuring out how to get the most out of the technology. Experts recommend business owners try to establish subject-matter credibility with customers and hone their writing skills before taking the plunge. Of course, signing up for social media tips and tricks from SmartBrief on Social Media couldn’t hurt either.
The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Social Media this past week:
- 6 lessons from the “Twitter revolution”
- Bozeman’s job app gets a little too personal for many
- JetBlue’s tweets from above
- Who will pay for Twitter?
- What’s new in the interactive world
Photo credit, iStock (read more…)
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