Retrospective: What I’ve Written about Social Media in the Last Year

While I haven’t posted much here on A New Marketing Commentator lately, I have been active in the blogosphere via Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets, a blog that is published and written by the team at Nowspeed. I’ve written a number of long posts there, most about social media, something I’ve been preaching and practicing and incorporating into my everyday marketing activities – where and when appropriate, of course – like there’s no tomorrow.

So as a way of kickstarting this long overdue re-launch of the blog that I reluctantly put on hiatus for so long, I thought I would share some of those posts with you here. If you have the time, reading through this retrospective of mine will give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately and will, hopefully, help you start, or improve upon, your own social media program.

What will be apparent after reading all this is just how strongly I believe that social media presents a rare, unprecedented and transformational opportunity for all of us marketers to deepen the bonds we covet with our customers and constituents.

So instead of asking “why social media,” try asking yourself “why not.” Instead of fearing it, try using it to your advantage to form long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships with like-minded people who are grounded in a high degree of transparency, trust, loyalty and love toward one another. And if you’re having any difficulty understanding social media and its many business applications, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me — anytime. I’m always glad to help. Always…

The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner
Preview: What’s a social media practitioner to do in order to be heard loud and clear above the din of so much online activity, never mind responded to favorably? How do you as a marketer or a PR pro or perhaps even an intern who’s been hired to build a constituency of friends, fans and followers command attention and respect for the brand you represent?

To read “The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner” in its entirety, click here.

How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program
Preview: There is a social media marketing strategy that appears to have caught on out there, one that can help marketers like you do well by doing good for others, one that Minneapolis-based Target Corporation leveraged recently by way of its “Bullseye Gives” campaign, in which the retailer asked its audience to go to its Facebook Fan Page and choose – from a list of 10 – the charities it should “give to the most.”

To read “How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program” in its entirety, click here.

Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media
Before you decide to dip your toes in social media, take a few minutes to answer these five important questions.  If you can answer yes to at least a few of them, then you’re in a pretty good place, a position from which you can at least begin to immerse yourself in such relatively uncharted waters as the blogosphere, the Twitterverse, Facebook and the like.   If not, then you need to move the needle in these areas and possibly talk to a third party specialist who can provide consultation, support and assistance.

To read “Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media” in its entirety, click here.

The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter
Preview: How many different ways are there for marketers like us to express ourselves to a mass of followers, fanatics and friends on Twitter? Well, for starters, here’s a list of the ten types of tweets that seem to prevail on Twitter, each of which you might work into the rotation during the course of your communications on this phenomenally popular social media platform.

To read “The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter” in its entirety, click here.
 
10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing
Preview: Sure, blogging is all about being open, honest and yes, vulnerable.  Its most ardent devotees believe passionately in sharing generously with their audiences, engaging them frequently in particularly candid conversations in public forums where everyone has an equal voice. So it’s not necessarily the first place you’d turn if your priority is, say, e-commerce.  But the number of similarities between blogging and direct marketing tell me the two disciplines don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Not at all. For instance…

To read “10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing” in its entirety, click here.

15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read
Preview: A post can be as short as just a sentence or two or as long as a full, feature-length, 500-word article.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly written, either, as the main attributes of a prototypical post are mainly that it’s somewhat conversational in tone, timely and, most important of all, engaging. Yes, there are many different types of blog posts.  I have listed 15 in this article, but the possibilities are almost endless.

To read “15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read” in its entirety, click here.

Are You a Corporate All-Star?
Preview: Whether it’s delivering an outstanding presentation at an important trade show, winning over a client with an awesome display of creative firepower or simply going above and beyond on everything that’s asked of you, there are many obvious ways to score points with your boss. But now you can add blogging, tweeting and even spending company time on Facebook to that list.

To read “Are You a Corporate All-Star?” in its entirety, click here.

How to Use Twitter to Report “Live” from an Event
Preview: Tweeting about a “live” event in real time is not only fun, it gives you the opportunity to treat your constituents to valuable information and insight that they might not have gotten otherwise.  It is also of tremendous benefit to those who are putting on the gig, as you are in effect acting as a journalist, or even an evangelist, propagating their content, helping them get the word out to a larger audience.

To read “How to Use Twitter to Report ‘Live’ from an Event” in its entirety, click here.

The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channels
Preview: The reason my wife, Barbara, hesitated to take the plunge and sign up for Facebook for so long is pretty much the same one that others — especially business people and corporations — are taking so much time to dip their collective toes in the social media waters in general. Fear. That’s what I learned from my wife about Facebook and social media…and that’s what I would like to share with you here.  Most people hesitate to join the online conversation because of these six fears…

To read “The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channel” in its entirety, click here.
 
Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities
Preview: Since 1946, according to the retailer’s website, “Target has given 5% of our income to the communities we serve. That adds up to over $3 million each and every week.” Here’s how Target saluted the moms among us (in honor of Mother’s Day) and leveraged social media to give (something every brand, big or small, should be doing nowadays) by asking members of their audience to go to their Facebook Fan Page, where they could tell them “which of these ten charity partners we should give to the most.”

To read “Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities” in its entirety, click here.
 
Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World
Preview: Despite the popularity of social media, you can still succeed in marketing today the old-fashioned way.  Yes, there are still plenty of opportunities for purists, traditionalists and even the raw neophytes among us to leverage the timeless, tried-and-true principles of our trade. Take Cushman’s Fruit Company, for example.  Demonstrating the right way to harness a few proven, age-old direct response advertising strategies, Cushman’s was selling 24 of its legendary HoneyBells in a quintessential, full-page mail-order ad that appeared in the November 23 (2008) edition of PARADE Magazine.

To read “Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World” in its entirety, click here.

Note: Bob Cargill is a copywriter, creative director and social media marketing consultant who works with Nowspeed and other clients, helping to strategize, develop and implement successful new marketing programs. He is available for hire (by both commercial and non-profit organizations) on a part-time, temporary, project or contract basis. To contact Bob now, click here.

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