Many people and companies open social media accounts and think that simply broadcasting comments about what they’re doing or what’s great about their company means that they’re participating in the social web.  Fundamentally, this is participating, but it’s far from effective engagement.  If you care enough to invest time and money into having an active social media presence, then it’s important to get your strategy right.

Posting random comments and links on a regular basis is where most companies start as a way to connect to consumers and future customers.  You’ve got to start somewhere, so this isn’t bad, but don’t let it be where your activity on the social web ends.  Here are the Top Five elements you need to bake into your social media strategy and execution:

1.  Listen – Social media is about online conversations, not online monologues.  The more you listen to what people care about, the easier it is to give that to them.  Initial listening can inform your conversations, while dedicated listening over time will inform your research and development for future products and better customer service.

2. Find Influencers – When you identify the primary and secondary influencers in your space, you are entering a new realm.  The social web is first place where we’ve been able to connect with the leaders in our field in ways that feel like chatting over the backyard fence to a neighbor.  It’s been said that the quality of your conversations determines the quality of your life.  If this is true, then imagine how much more value your life will have once you start interacting with people of the highest caliber in the fields that interest you the most.

3. Content is King – The content of the text you write, the links you share, and the pictures and videos you create and share reflects who you are and why others should give you the time of day.  We live in an attention economy now; if people choose to give you their attention, then you’ve probably done something to deserve it.  The best content is created based on what you learn from steps 1 and 2.  Serve up fresh content that people like on a regular basis and the online world will be your oyster.

4. Participation is mandatory (and fun) – The majority of people online will always be lurkers, but lurking will do nothing to help you or your company.  When you comment and share interesting content you’re showing that you’re paying attention to others and not just out to sell your own products or services.

The fuel in the engine of the attention economy is attraction.  When you’re sharing content that others find valuable then you’ll attract them. Wouldn’t you rather magnetize people to you rather than trying to sell people on how great your company is?

5. Be a resource – As you share your expertise, and promote unaffiliated resources that others find value in, you make yourself a valuable resource.  Your credibility goes up every time you share content that makes people laugh, smile or learn.  Unconsciously they’ll begin to see you as a resource that they need to pay attention to.  If you’re doing this at least 80% of the time and only promoting yourself or your company 20% (or less) of the time, you’ll develop a following that cares about what you have to give, and the law of reciprocity will drive them to give back.

The caveat to all of these elements is that you have to be doing them from an honest and generous place. Trying to manipulate people with these elements may work in the short term, but the magic of social media is that  it’s easy to tell the real deal from companies and people who are only participating as a way to get what they want from online community participants.

This article was originally posted at Oxstein Labs.

This article was originally posted at Oxstein Labs.

There are many ways that consumers and companies are cashing in on the escalating frugality trend.  This is a direct effect of the increasing use of both social networking platforms and of smart phone use.  As the population continues to talk on the phone less and less, we are also welcoming using our phones (and email) to receive notifications of deals on products and services that we like.

If you have a retail business and have not launched a campaign through group buying then you have missed out on a lot of business.  Groupon and LivingSocial are at the top of the group buying mountain and can deliver results that will blow your mind.

The biggest problem companies have with these campaigns is not preparing their internal structures and supplies to meet the flood of demand they receive.  One example is a Washington D.C. company that offered $50 worth of cupcakes for $25 and had to make their staff work around the clock to bake enough cupcakes.

The front end of why this works is that people opt-in to receive daily notifications of deals.  Why opt in?  Because everyone loves the gratification of feeling that they got a good deal, and even more importantly, people love to be the first ones to tell their friends about something cool.

This brings us to the backend value of participating in group buying.  If Jane gets a notification about half off for a spa day at a local salon, not only does she get to talk about saving money (which means she’s smart), but she also gets to be the one to forward the email to friends.  This is both giving a gift and spreading influence which raises Jane’s level of importance to people whose opinions she cares about.  Deep psychological needs for connection and validation are met through this process.

But beware of magic bullets.  There is no absolute guarantee that if you pay for a campaign the customers will come.  You need to apply due diligence on what it will take to break even on a campaign.  If you have a shoddy product and you have not proven that people will pay for what you have, even giving a great discount  through group buying may not boost your bottom line.  That said, if you ask yourself the right questions before committing to a campaign, there are few other avenues to build interest in your products as instantly as group buying offers.

This article was originally published at Oxstein Labs.

Facebook launched the beta version of Facebook Questions this week in what looks to be a mashup of Wikipedia, Google Buzz and LinkedIn Answers.  Since this is Facebook, the questions so far are more personal and whimsical than LinkedIn’s professional question and answer forums.

The question out of the gate is whether Facebook Questions can become the greatest crowdsourcing tool we have ever seen or if it will mostly spawn conversations that are more entertaining than informative.

The idea of being able to ask your Facebook network questions in a thread that is easier to follow than a question on your wall post seems like an obvious improvement.  In the short term we will mostly see questions about travel, pop culture, movies, books and music.

As people get used to this new feature it could help people to get jobs, learn about professional resources, share home remedies for colds and flus, or get the advice they most want from all of the people that they trust the most.  Here’s how Facebook describes Facebook Questions:

“Facebook Questions helps you tap into the collective knowledge of the more than 500 million people on Facebook. For example, if you’re vacationing in Costa Rica and want to know the best places to surf, you can use Facebook Questions to get answers from nearby surfing enthusiasts. Because questions will also appear to your friends and their friends, you’ll receive answers that are more personalized to you.

To ask a question to the community, just click the “Ask Question” button at the top of the homepage. You can also ask questions about your friends from their profiles, similarly to how you would post on their Walls.”

Facebook Questions adds a new layer of depth to the fact that now everyone is an influencer. Now you can connect with more friends in meaningful ways faster, share and learn from each other, and increase awareness of what an expert you are in the areas you care the most about.

This article originally ran at Oxstein Labs.

Geo-location or Location Based Services (LBS) are getting more press all the time.  In the same way we have heard for a few years that mobile computing would be the next huge thing, we are now hearing about Foursquare, Gowalla, Wrrrl, Loopt and Brightkite.

On a side note, only 42% of Americans currently use smart phones.  This doesn’t mean that mobile computing won’t eventually be predominant, but that people usually overestimate how quickly adoption rates of new technology will reach a mainstream tipping point.

We are at the tail end of the early adopter phase for location based services.  When the rumored Facebook location based service rolls out to compete with Foursquare it will be a whole new ball game.

Our favorite LBS apps were just served a slap of reality by Forrester Research, who discovered that only 4% of online users in the US report using a location-based application on their cell phones. The takeaway from the report is that marketers should wait for the LBS market to mature before integrating them into their campaigns.

As a blanket statement that makes obvious sense.  But when you review successful campaigns that have already run, and account for the impact that different local and regional markets can have from LBS marketing, it’s another story; and both stories are true and include many nuances.

There is no form of marketing that gets the same results across most or all industries and locations.  Marketing is an art blended with some science.  In the case of location-based services, tech savvy cities like Palo Alto, San Francisco, Boulder, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Chicago are going to have much more success than markets that are traditionally slower to adopt using new technologies.

Starbucks recent partnership with Foursquare is an example of how mixed results can be.  Tech savvy Foursquare lovers ran into not-so-tech-savvy food servers and managers who weren’t properly informed of the campaign and had to be educated by their customers instead of by corporate headquarters. Though this is awkward, it is part of the growing pains as we all figure out how to market through location-based services in ways that excite customers and allow the brands to have fun while they drive some good word of mouth.

So are location-based services ready from prime time?  When you don’t research whether your customers are participating in “check-ins” through Foursquare or posting LBS pictures through Pegshot, no way.  When your research and brand strategy mixes correctly with the local markets you are trying to serve, and when you realize that the growing percentages of location-based service users are trend setting influencers, definitely.

In conclusion, if you are new to the geolocation and location-based services conversation, I highly recommend reading Rob Reed‘s guest post at SocialWayne.com on 10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World.

This article was originally posted at Oxstein Labs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here we are a short week after Old Spice enjoyed the biggest viral marketing campaign of 2010.  The Old Spice name is on the tip of millions of tongues and being read in tens of thousands of articles like this one.  And the big question is just starting to be asked, “Did that successful marketing campaign improve sales?”

The answer so far is “No.”  But to make a fuss about that at this early stage is a waste of time; not that it will stop writers across the blogoshpere and in the corporate media from pointing it out.  In fact you’ll probably read a lot about how Old Spice sales for 2010 are down 7%.  (Yes, even more PR generated from this campaign.)

Does a sales drop happening concurrently with Old Spice’s most successful marketing campaign in years mean that the commercials and viral videos drove sales down?  Of course not.  Correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

It also means that just because they didn’t generate a spike in sales, there is no way to know how well Q1 and Q2 2010 marketing efforts will help Old Spice in the coming months and years.  Especially if they develop ongoing social media marketing efforts to engage with old customers and new fans.

Short term numbers for the Old Spice Guy campaign were off the charts.  With over 5.9 million You Tube views and over 22,500 comments over the course of a few days, there is nothing to complain about.  And by the way, all of the 180 videos posted to You Tube for this campaign will now be working for Old Spice 24/7.  A tremendous marketing foundation has been built.

What the brilliant Old Spice viral videos will prove in the long run is what Scott Monty, the head of social media for Ford Motor Company, says often, “Social media marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.”

Thinking that social media marketing efforts will result in immediate sales is short-sighted and will lead to unfulfilled expectations.  No, that’s not what companies want to hear.  Yes, it’s the actual truth and wanting it to be different will not make it so.

Social media marketing done well will increase brand awareness, generate positive word of mouth and drive interest in your company.  Traditional ROI metrics used for quarterly reviews cannot measure these benefits, which inaccurately undervalues their importance to the health of a growing business.

While social media marketing may show a positive effect on short term sales, that is not where the value lies.  The benefits of social media marketing are in building strong relationships and loyalty that drive up the lifetime value of repeat customers.

I loved the Old Spice videos.  They were some of the most interesting and creative marketing that has ever hit the interwebs.  My awareness of the Old Spice brand, like yours no doubt, is higher than ever.  Does that mean that I ran out and bought their products? Nope.

Was your reaction to the videos to go out and buy their products immediately? …or was it to click on some more of their entertaining content? …or to post the videos on your Facebook page or blog?  …or to email links to the videos to your friends?

My dad still uses Old Spice and I never have.  I’ll now consider them to be a hipper brand that is doing a great job at updating their image.  I will pay more attention to them now and might possibly buy a product from them in the future, though right now I have no plans to do so.  But before this campain they weren’t even on my radar and if they keep it up I may become a new and repeat customer.

This post first appeared on the Oxstein Labs blog.

Isaiah, the new Old Spice pitch man, makes the men laugh and the ladies swoon.  His commercials generated so much heat that television could not contain him.  Now Isaiah and Old Spice are social media darlings spreading viral smiles across the globe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Isaiah is now in the pantheon of commercial celebrities like the “What’s the Beef?” Wendy’s Lady and the Burger King King who most recently showed up on chat roulette giving away coupons in a smart social media play. While Isaiah is at his peak, and after the World Cup domination of Twitter has ended, Old Spice rolled out this campaign that everybody’s talking about.

In a brilliant PR move,  Isaiah has spent the last couple of days responding directly to bloggers, journalists, celebrities and random Twitter followers through well crafted, funny and sensual You Tube videos.  He even asked a woman to marry a man who requested that Isaiah deliver the proposal for him. The “Isaiah Talks to You” social media marketing campaign hits high notes few have seen.

The Old Spice You Tube channel is bursting at the seams with entertaining videos that you can’t help sharing with others.Though you won’t have enough time to watch them all at least check out the Alyssa Milano response above (which will surely get Isaiah a date) and the Justine Bateman response.

Rick Bakas gives a good overview of why this social media marketing campaign is so effective with some points that are worth repeating. The big takeaway for anyone interested in beefing up their social media marketing is to connect with influencers who care about your product or service.

Isaiah’s first videos responded to bloggers and journalists that had written about the Old Spice commercials.  They have huge audiences, and like all people, they like to hear their own name.  If Isaiah responded to you in a You Tube video how many people would you tell?

The main ingredients of the Old Spice social media marketing campaign come together to show how online and offline branding can work amazingly well together with good strategy.  What we can all learn from this, besides the fact that sex still sells (especially when the bare chested man speaks directly to the ladies by name), is that social media marketing has hit the mainstream.

Major corporations are building relationships with their audiences in more and more creative ways.  Social media has moved the needle to being a very powerful tool that any brand can use to generate awareness, interest and more sales.  So who is your Isaiah and when are you rolling out your next campaign?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fast Company created their Influencer Project supposedly to show who has influence in the social web, or in particular, on Twitter and Facebook. People are being asked to send a unique link to their friends and followers to see how many people will click on it.  Those who can get their link clicked on the most will be featured on a Fast Company magazine cover.

This is a great example of leveraging the psychology of humans needing connection and validation.  Or in layman’s terms, it is a brilliant popularity contest, but it doesn’t prove anything about influence.

The thing with influence, like the thing with trust, is that it cannot be accurately assessed in a blanket statement.  If you can influence someone to see a movie it does not correlate with your ability to influence them to buy a certain brand of wine.  I may trust you to be punctual to a meeting, but that does not mean I trust you to watch my children or to hold on to my wallet without taking the money out of it.

Read the full article here

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Influencer Marketing is the ‘new black’ in advertising because it meshes the trust that Influencers have built over time with ad dollars from brands who don’t have that level of trust with their audience.

In real estate only three things matter: location, location, location.  In online marketing three things will have the biggest impact on your success or failure: videos, videos, videos..

Video is the most powerful medium available because it quickly engages all of your senses.  You unconsciously assess the authenticity and level of relationship you want with any person you watch.  Some of the aspects you notice are: voice inflection, voice tone, voice speed, facial expressions, eye contact, body posture and body movements.

These details compose a picture that affects your Somatic Indicator Bias, or how interested you are in another person.  Combined, they make up 93% of delivered communication while the actual words spoken only account for 7%.

Read the full article here.