There are two ways to use social media.

Maggie Fox is the keynote at Social Fresh Tampa today. And she is talking about ways to broadcast. Big Brands only understand advertising, so social media becomes another vehicle for advertising. Her formula is to combine Earned PR with Paid Advertising and syndicate it through the Brand’s channels.

It’s not a big concept. It’s just using an Earned piece of publicity and re-purposing it over and over. Syndication means that your company – every company – is now a media organization. You have a chance to control the message — in a way. (On social networks, you only have the illusion of control.)

Best quote from one panel: “Advertising is the tax your business pays for being unremarkable.”

The other way to use social networks is to engage your marketplace. Listening is the important first step. The second step is to create compelling content. The final step is to engage your audience. Interact with them.

My rule of thumb is re-tweet two tweets; tweet two interesting(and hopefully original) items; and reply to two things daily.

The number of followers is irrelevant (unless you are a Big Brand). It’s the number of listeners that you have that is significant.

Give them something to listen to. Give them something to repeat.

Tell them a story about you, your product or service, your employees, your charity, your customers. That’s human interest.

You need to be a story-teller and a good listener.

If you are a small business, you probably want the second way. If you are a big Brand, you are probably trying to figure out how to capitalize on the first way (Earned+Paid+Syndication). It boils down to advertising versus WOM. Word-of-Mouth is the friend of small business.

Lots of talk about using video for marketing. YouTube has the majority of the online video audience with 40%. The significant statistic is this: The duration of the average online video was 3.8 minutes. The average viewer on Hulu only watches 1 hour and 17 minutes of video in the month. That means many, many folks watch a lot less than 1 minute of video.

Like a TV commercial, you need to grab the audience in the first 3 to 5 seconds. But it’s more than just the attention grabbing. Your message has to be powerful, memorable, and concise.

The rule of marketing is the same for online video, offline media or social media. These vehicles only work if the marketing works. [The marketing being that you have a powerful, concise, easy to share message. The more memorable or emotional it is the better it can resonate with your audience.]

At the AMA Tampa Bay meeting on Online Video, there were some good examples of video messaging. One was Julia Gorzka’s use of video to get the story out about Tampa’s own tortilla factory (savethetortillas.com).

Another example was Ken Donaldson, who is a relationship counselor. He spoke about the ease of video to get the message out and how he has built his practice through video and blogging.

Like any medium, if the message is boring, you won’t get a response. In today’s frenetic attention deficit society, you not only need your marketing to be ON, but your video better be on some fast servers and load quick!

Interesting article:

“”I believe that one of the key things that keep small businesses small is that the owners maintain a small business mindset. For many, being small is just fine. They don’t ever want to be anything more than a mom and pop operation. But others dream big and want to see big goal accomplished but continue to struggle to “make it big.” They can’t ever seem to get over that hump that propels them out of small-time territory.”

“If you don’t want to be a mom and pop operation, or you want to be more than the small business you are, then it’s time to start thinking not like the small business you are but like the bigger business you want to be.”

The author then goes on to talk about Online Marketing. (I am bringing in a team to present on that in-depth in Orlando in March, 2010).

What it doesn’t talk about is even more important: Marketing 101. It all starts with the Goal. What is the goal of your marketing?

Be specific. To get sales is way to general.

1. What are you selling?
2. Who are you selling it to?
3. Why should they buy it from you?
4. How can I reach my target market?
5. What will I say to them to get them to buy/contact us?

Doesn’t matter if this is online or offline marketing. The same questions apply. The answers should be all about the Customer Experience, not about some feature.

Think about how restaurants advertise. Carrabba’s radio ads describe a recipe of a delicious main course that is available for a limited time. It paints a picture. It tells a story. It has a call to action (go to Carrabba’s soon before it’s gone). McDonald’s uses a similar ad for McRib. Limited time. People love them. Come get it.

The hype with Online Marketing is that it is easy and instant. Not really. It is certainly trackable and measurable. But easy and instant notsomuch. (Nothing is).

Back to the opening paragraph, what is your Goal, your vision for your company? It’s November with December fast approaching. I will be spending a day reviewing 2009 and planning my goals for 2010. How much revenue do I want to make? How will I make that revenue? Where will I find my customers? Where do I want to speak? What will the follow-up look like?

I suggest that you take the time to review your year and plan for 2010. If you need help, call our office at 813-496-2122. Thank you.