The Death of Interruption Marketing

My new article on Entrepreneur.com discusses how the world of marketing has changed from being reliant on interruption to engagement.

Following is an excerpt from the article, which you can read in its entirety here.

“With the growth of social media, marketers have learned that simply interrupting the online conversation doesn’t always lead to sales, nor does it lead to positive word-of-mouth marketing. Now the goal of marketing is engagement. Consumers want to know, what are you going to tell them after you interrupt them?  Marketers have discovered that there is tremendous value in building brands and relationships through long-term social media strategy vs. short-term direct-marketing tactics on social websites.”

What do you think?  Is interruption marketing dead?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.

The New Social Media Marketing ROI

I just wrote an article for the Yahoo! Advertising Blog that discusses the new ROI for measuring social media marketing performance.

Following is an excerpt from my article:

“Tracking online brand advertising and social media marketing success comes from tracking return-on-impression, the new form of ROI. Return-on-Impression encompasses two primary soft metric values: eyeballs and perceptions.”

To learn more about the shift from tracking Return on Investment to tracking Return on Impression, follow the link to check out my post on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

Fight, Flight or Flood – How to Respond to a Negative Online Buzz about You or Your Business

People talk about things that are meaningful to them. They’ve been talking about products, brands, businesses and people offline since the first means of communication were created. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people today talk on the social Web. The global conversation is loud and powerful, and it can positively or negatively affect your, your brand, and your business.

But what should you do when someone says something negative about you or your business online?

This is one of the most common fears of individuals and businesses considering leveraging the social Web conversation to build their reputations, brands and businesses, and unfortunately, it’s one of the main reasons that people and companies are not getting the results they want and need from their social media efforts.

Don’t be afraid to let the audience take control of the conversation. That’s where the power of the social Web comes from in terms of building brands and businesses. And if someone publishes something negative about you or your business online, don’t try to squash the conversation. Overtly trying to control the conversation can do far more harm to your reputation than good. Instead, follow one of the three paths described below to effectively respond to a negative online buzz about you, your brand, or your business.

1. Fight

While you don’t want to appear controlling nor do you want to stop the online conversation (even if it’s negative), you can fight without looking like a bully. Join the conversation and nudge it in the right direction (i.e., the direction that is best for you and your business) by addressing misconceptions, admitting mistakes, and demonstrating your desire to fix them and put customers first. The more time you spend building your audience of brand advocates across the social Web, the more you’ll start to see those people standing up for you. Therefore, the fight path offers two effective options — nudging conversations yourself and allowing your band of brand advocates to nudge it for you. [Read more]

Harnessing the Power of Social Media – Interview with Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius was featured in a new interview for XLRQ Radio’s Embrace the Noise program where she discussed how companies, entrepreneurs, and organizations can tap into the power and reach of social media to effectively build brands, relationships and business.

You can follow the link to listen to Harnessing the Power of Social Media with Susan Gunelius.

5 Guaranteed Ways to Establish Your Reputation as an Expert via Social Media

My newest article on Forbes.com is called 5 Guaranteed Ways to Establish Your Reputation as an Expert in Your Field via Social Media and explains the 5 simple steps you need to take to build your online brand.

Those five steps are:

1. Publish shareworthy content.
2. Go multimedia.
3. Leverage the features of social media tools.
4. Join organizations and groups that actively seek experts for media opportunities.
5. Integrate and cross promote your efforts.

You can get all the details by following the above link to read the full article.  Also, don’t forget to inject your personality into your online communications!

5 Tips for Quick Social Media Marketing Success

My newest article on Entrepreneur.com is called 5 Tips for Quick Social Media Success and it offers five key things you need to do both behaviorally and strategically to boost your social media marketing success.

Following is tip #5 from the article:

Don’t try to keep up with the Jones’.
Just because your competitor is doing something on the social web doesn’t mean that you need to do the same. By blindly following your competitor’s path, you’re marketing scared and without purpose. Plus, it’s probable that your competitor’s initiatives won’t help you meet your goals at all. While it’s essential that you monitor your competitor’s social media marketing activities, you should analyze them against your own goals before implementing any of them yourself.

Follow the link above to read the complete article on the Entrepreneur.com website.

What is your top social media marketing tip?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

12 Steps to Get the Most from LinkedIn

My newest article on Forbes.com is called 12 Tips to Get the Most from LinkedIn and I offer not only 12 easy to implement tips but also links to learn more and get started immediately.

Following is an excerpt from my article:

LinkedIn has grown into more than a social networking site for business people.  Today, it’s also one of the first places employers and business partners go to learn more about the people who want to work with them.  It’s also one of the first places that employees go to learn more about potential leaders, managers, colleagues and so on.

Not only does LinkedIn offer information about people you consider working with, but it can also open doors to new opportunities and relationships that can benefit your career in the long term.  Don’t just create your LinkedIn profile and forget it.  Instead, follow the tips below to make your LinkedIn profile work for you.

You can follow the link to find out what my 12 steps to get the most from LinkedIn are.

What is your top LinkedIn tip?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

100 Social Media and Content Marketing Predictions for 2010

Joe Pulizzi of the Junta42 Content Marketing blog (and publisher of the Junta42 top content marketing blogs list, which KeySplash Creative is on) recently asked top social media and content marketers around the world for their industry predictions for 2010.

Predictions came from well-known names like Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott, John Jantsch, and more (including me!).  You can read all 100 expert predictions here on the Junta42 blog.  There is no doubt that the comments and predictions in this list will make you think and re-evaluate your strategies for 2010.

What’s your prediction for social media and content marketing in 2010?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

From WTF to TFW – How a Blog Caused a Logo Change for Wisconsin

Earlier this year, one of my favorite blogs, Your Logo Makes Me Barf, wrote a post called WTF Wisconsin? that pointed out a glaring error made by the Wisconsin Tourism Federation.  If you don’t know what the acronym WTF stands for, I’ll tell you — “What the fu*k?”  Take a look at the logo below.

While it’s surprising that no one within or working with the Wisconsin Tourism Federation mentioned this problem to them, the more interesting point of the story comes from how they learned about it.  The power of the blogosphere is demonstrated once again with the WTF Wisconsin? post on Your Logo Makes Me Barf.  The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote about it on the same day in their Hubbub blog.

Perhaps the more unfortunate part of this story though is something mentioned on another of my favorite blogs — Brand New.  The organization took the time and invested the money to change their name after realizing the error (the new name is Tourism Federation of Wisconsin), but they just flipped the letters in the logo instead of creating a new one.  Now that’s a missed opportunity as this logo leaves a lot to be desired (see below).

Of course, the lesson to learn is — always make sure multiple people review your work.  You never know what you might miss.

9 Reasons to Sign up for the GrowSmartBiz Conference

Some of you might know that I’m on the Network Solutions Social Web Advisory Board, so sometimes I get emails from them announcing events and webinars.  Today, I received an email about the upcoming GrowSmartBiz Conference in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 2009 along with a discount code to get two registrations for $99 (a $500 discount) that I’m happy to share with KeySplash Creative Conversations readers.  Following is the email I received from Network Solutions with all the details:

Nine reasons to sign up today for the GrowSmartBiz Conference in Washington, D.C., Sept. 29!

1. Get an opportunity to network with small business owners and entrepreneurs – learn and grow your business at the same time!
2. Gain insight – including tips and strategies – from more than 20 of the nation’s top small business experts.
3. See Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail and Free, as the conference keynote.
4. Walk away with executable, cost-effective ways to market, promote and grow your business.
5. Find out what others are doing to weather the current economic storm – and pick up strategies and tactics you can apply to your own business.
6. Learn how to navigate your way through what can be a financial maze from people who hav[e done it – and succeeded.
7. Expand your marketing arsenal – figure out how to enhance your current promotional efforts by integrating social media.
8. Score lots of free stuff – including a free domain name from Network Solutions®, a copy of Chris Anderson’s best-selling book, Free, and business planning software from Palo Alto Software.
9. TODAY ONLY, REGISTER TO RECEIVE TWO ADMISSIONS FOR JUST $99 TOTAL – A SAVINGS OF NEARLY $500! But, you have to act fast – the offer is only good Wednesday, September 9 from 12 a.m. EST to 11:59 p.m. EST. REGISTER NOW by using the promo code: GSB999 and clicking here!

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