Big Dreams and Hard Work

by Gail Z. Martin excerpted from 30 Days to Social Media Success

Radio stations have long used “street teams” of interns or volunteers to post flyers, stuff mailboxes and raise buzz about upcoming events and new artists. You can create your own street team and leverage the social media power of your most avid online friends and followers by offering them the opportunity to promote a cause or product they believe in.

This works especially well for products that have a highly targeted niche audience, passionate users and a sense of mission. For example, authors and bands often recruit street teams to help spread the word about a new book or CD. Nonprofits and cause-related organizations frequently recruit street teams in the context of grassroots-level fundraisers, whether they are 5K races, cookie sales or jump rope marathons.

Street team success requires you to have a highly developed knowledge of your core audience and most devoted fans, and to know what motivates them. Meaningful motivation can be surprisingly inexpensive, and can include recognition, coupons, t-shirts, photos posted online, or the ability to contribute content or input. Authors have sometimes rewarded dedicated street team members by using their name for a character in an upcoming book. Bands give away t-shirts and CDs, or special song or video downloads.

Street teams can be especially effective when their members have credibility within an audience that may be distrustful of traditional advertising or are too small to reach effectively through normal advertising channels. The effectiveness of the street team lies in its members being bona fide members of the target audience or having credibility within the audience as informal leaders and trendsetters. For example, a company selling to college students could recruit street teams who would be able to pass out coupons and promotional items on campus and in dormitories, where traditional advertising might not penetrate. Jewelers or clothing manufacturers who sell to an ethnic minority or recent immigrant audience could leverage the credibility of street team members within a difficult-to-reach audience where relationships and word of mouth have high value.

Social media becomes a key component in keeping touch with your street team members and recruiting new members. It’s important to remember that street teamers only participate for as long as being part of the team is fun and personally rewarding. Turnover is high, and street teams should be handled gently to avoid burnout. Always remember that they are doing you a huge favor by passing along your information for free, and treat them graciously. Be lavish with praise, recognition and whatever freebies you can offer. Make it fun and easy for them to share your message without compromising their credibility or integrity.

With today’s growing variety of social media choices, your sales promotion possibilities are limited only by your imagination. When you involve customers in creating the promotion, they’re eager to pass it along to their friends.

by Gail Z. Martin excerpted from 30 Days to Social Media Success

Everyone wants results from marketing and social media. In my experience over the last 25+ years, there’s a recipe for results that separates the winners from the losers. Just like in the kitchen, it’s a recipe you need to follow in order to get the outcome you expect. Leave out an ingredient and it won’t work as well. Skip a few steps, and you’ll be disappointed.

Here’s my list of ‘secret’ ingredients:

The RESULTS™ approach stands for:

R = Recommit to marketing

E = Expect success

S = Seek partners

U = Understand your audience

L = Look for win-win scenarios

T = Take strategic action

S = Stay visible

In the next 30 days, you can see your social media marketing go from zero to full speed by applying the RESULTS™ formula.

Recommit to set aside at least 30 minutes each day (yes, weekends, too) to devote to developing your social media marketing strategy for the next 30 days. (Thirty minutes is a minimum. Once you get started, you’ll want to spend an hour, so block out the time now.)

Expect success by throwing yourself whole-heartedly into this 30 day commitment. If the little voice in the back of your head keeps saying, “this is ridiculous. This isn’t going to work,” you are programming yourself for failure. Program yourself for success by writing down 30 things you would like to achieve from your social media strategy. Some ideas include:

• Reconnect with old colleagues, friends, neighbors and contacts to broaden your active circle of contacts.
• Attend the world’s biggest 24/7 business networking event with a global audience and put your best foot forward
• Take advantage of all the free information, education at sites like Fernstudium-Infomaterial.de and competitive intelligence at your fingertips

Now that you’ve seen those three examples, come up with your own list of 30 Success

Expectations and keep them handy to check back on.

Seek partners. Social media is “social.” You can meet amazing people on sites like Facebook, and get access to experts you might not be able to reach any other way. Sites like LinkedIn are particularly good for finding out what friends and colleagues are currently doing, and who they know. Make a list of 30 friends, colleagues and associates whom you’ve lost track of, and commit to finding them and touching base via social media.

Understand your audience in more profitable detail than ever before with the exercises in chapter three. Make a list of 30 things you wished you knew about your best customers—and create 30 questions you can use for quizzes, surveys and social media discussions.

Look for win-win scenarios by posting valuable content on the right social media sites to attract more of your best prospects. You offer solutions, and they become your best clients. It’s a win-win. Write down 30 ideas for useful tips, articles, videos or other content you could post right away by re-using information you already have.

Take strategic action by putting what you learn in this book to work for you. As you read, be sure to do the exercises at the end of each chapter. Complete all 30 chapter exercises in the next 30 days and watch your social media soar!

Stay visible by keeping your social media sites fresh and relevant. Create a list of 30 upcoming events, newsworthy items or announcements you could make to your new social media audience to get them talking, create a dialogue and demonstrate your credibility.

Most people put off doing marketing because they think it’s too difficult or too time-consuming. By using the principles in this book, you’ll do more in 30 minutes a day for 30 days than most business owners do all year. That’s the “Get Results” secret weapon—strategic, consistent effort in pursuit of clear, measurable results.

Remember: Planning + Effort + Consistency = Results

Here’s a key question to ask yourself: How many times are your messages “touching” prospects prior to making the sale? How close is that number to 30? That answer will give you a good idea of what you need to do to move your marketing forward successfully!

by Gail Z. Martin excerpted from 30 Days to Social Media Success

Marketing horror stories. You’ve probably heard them. You may have one yourself. These are the stories about how someone tried a marketing technique, sent out a press release or ran an ad and “it didn’t work.” If you want to check one effective marketing idea, check with the experts from London tube advertising.

I’ve heard plenty of these stories. And as with most urban legends, there’s usually more to the story than meets the eye. If you’re reading this book, you’re a coach, consultant, speaker, author or owner of a small business and you want more from your marketing than you’re currently getting. You may not be marketing at all because your business is new, or because you’re afraid to fail. Or it may be that your marketing is chugging along with mediocre returns or muddled measurement.

Take heart. Marketing isn’t mysterious, and once you understand how the pieces fit together, you’ll be in a better position to market your own company or to oversee someone to handle marketing for you. Take the first step in the RESULTS™ model and Recommit to marketing. Let’s start by looking at the seven most common reasons that marketing plans fail.

• No Planning. This is true in both large and small businesses. Many marketing efforts fail because there is no link between the marketing actions and the bottom-line business plan goals that drive revenue. This happens because decision makers get caught up with a vivid, creative idea that isn’t accountable to the bottom line, or because they take a “great deal” offered by a salesperson for a media buy. Marketing without a plan is a disaster waiting to happen.
• Inappropriate Actions. If there is no plan, then whatever marketing actions that are taken may conflict with each other. It’s unlikely they’ll reinforce each other or support a business plan goal. Disappointing results come about because of a “ready-fire-aim” approach where actions aren’t anchored to business objectives and target audiences. Attempts to copy what a successful competitor is doing without understanding why (or whether) the action is working for them is also a dangerous approach.
• Lack of Clarity about the Target Market. Mass marketing is dead. Blasting out marketing without a clear target is wasteful and unsuccessful. You can’t hit a target if you haven’t identified it. There is a “sweet spot” of potential customers who could become your ideal clients. You’ll need to get to know them to win them.
• Lack of Clear Goals. If you don’t have an upfront understanding of what success will look like, you won’t know when you achieve it. Not only do your marketing actions need to be linked to specific business goals, but each marketing action should be measurable. Build in measurability up front so expectations are clear.
• Unreasonable Expectations. A single press release isn’t likely to create a big spike in sales. One ad probably won’t save your company. Many people become disillusioned with marketing because they don’t understand the benchmarks for successful programs. For example, most direct mail professionals are thrilled to get a 1% response rate. One percent! Yet many small businesses send out a postcard mailing and quit in disgust, expecting a response of 20%, 30% or more. It’s important to have realistic expectations so you recognize success when you see it.
• Unclear on How Marketing Works. For many people, marketing is a lot like a DVD player. They don’t know (and don’t care) how it works. Your odds of creating successful marketing are slim without some knowledge of how the pieces function and the process required to pull the pieces together. With the Internet, new tools are emerging almost daily. You’ll need to know how to blend New Media and Web 2.0 tools with traditional marketing to succeed in today’s marketplace. Understanding what makes marketing tick is essential whether you’re doing it yourself or delegating it to someone else.
• Insufficient Patience. “We ran an ad once and nothing happened.” We’ve all heard that. But did you know that marketing research shows that it takes between seven to 30 “touches” to make a sale? Customers won’t buy until they have an urgent need. Until then, all you can do is create name recognition and a good reputation. That’s the value of the Rule of 30™. Marketing has a lot in common with farming. You wouldn’t plant seeds one day and go out the next and dig them up in disgust because full grown plants hadn’t sprouted overnight. Seeds take time and you can’t hurry that. Marketing seeds also take time to grow.