CloudBacon

I get a lot of flak on almost every phrase that comes out of my mouth.  If we ever meet, trust me, I will run my mouth on the smallest and largest subjects.  Most of the time these tirades are driven by "things" or people that directly infect my life.  All of this, babble boils down to one...little comment I let go today: "Socail marketing is slowly killing brands."  This promptly opened up a literal shit storm from all of the people in our office.  I thought perhaps, I would share with you why there is an inherent need to understand, embrace, and kiss your brand goodbye.

Social media / marketing / spanking / loving, whatever you want to call it WILL and IS crumbling your brand.  Don't get me wrong, the actual act is not what is "softening" your brand, it is the people who participate.  Every, and you can take this to the bank, every time your brand is talked about it is being modified, changed, morphed, mutated, etc.  These people are talking every day about brands, but do you think they have gone through Brand X's crash course on it's image, history, lifestyle?  Yeah, doubt it.  Don't get me wrong, these modifications are usually good, however; they probably never line up with what your traditional marketing strategy desires (and really why should they).  You can grasp on to the brand all you want, although; at the end of the day, your brand is going to be represented by word of mouth, people, and certainly not you. 

You can try and put forth a ton of money, man power, time, and effort to block this leak but, why not embrace it?  Take the same people who are eroding your brand and turn them into advocates.  People, who simply can't stop talking about your brand because they realize how unbelievably great it is.  People, who are always talking about your brand no matter the situation.  Really, how unbelievably cool would this be for all you business owners / entrepreneurs out there?  Take your old ass brand image, tone, idea and close the door on that chapter, welcome to something different, way more fun, and 100% more effective.

Loading mentions Retweet

Twitter seems to be the epitome of the social media web at the very moment.  And why not?  It has been on Oprah, CNN, and a bunch of other mildly shitty television shows (and channels) that morons seem to be attracted to.  The issue bubbles to fruition when those same people think they need to jump on the service and randomly friend a bunch of people and contribute nothing to the service.  Hot damn, this is post is negative; lets see what I can do to turn it around. 

When someone follows me I get a convenient email telling me who you are.  I love this because I truly want to meet and get to know everyone who is interested about everything I have to say.  Many folks do not use this feature because they would have a tremendous amount of followers and that is OK, but 90 percent of us do not fall into this category.  Without further ado, here are some good ways to ensure that someone will follow you back.

1. Tweet and follow at the same time.  Do not let me see that you have followed 800 people and have 0 tweets.  Build from the ground up and find followers along the way.

2. Give yourself a profile picture.  Show people you care and post a profile picture of anything (it doesn't need to be yourself exactly)

3. If I click on your name and see that you have NO retweets for the entire page, you are out, immediately.  Give back to the community; this is one of the main points of twitter so stop telling us about your herpes and start pimping others great stuff.

4. Link to things; either photos or links to stuff you think is interesting.  This goes hand and hand with the item in 4th place.  Be smart and give back, refrain from being a shouting troll.

5.  Fill out your profile bio and a web page where we can find you at.  Maybe we want to see the rest of your work or perhaps sell you as a professional in your industry.  Fun stuff in your bio is cool, just have it filled out.

If you can handle doing this then I guarentee that you will be followed back by 75 percent of the people you follow.  The numbers are on your side so have fun and love on twitter and its peeps.

Loading mentions Retweet