Update: Favorite Social Sites of College Seniors

Posted on January 30, 2015 by

The initial survey of my 60 social media marketing students last August (see previous post!) generated some interest, so I thought I would update it for Spring Semester 2015.

Weighted Scores – Favorite and Most Used Social Sites

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Posted in Facebook, Higher education, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Teaching SMM, twitter | Tagged | 1 Comment

Essential Social Platforms for College Seniors

Posted on August 26, 2014 by

I like to survey my incoming social media marketing class about their social networks. It is often a learning experience for me: a couple of years ago I learned about two new platforms, Instagram and Pinterest, before they hit a “tipping point” and were in the news. Last January I learned about the popularity of Snapchat and some upcoming sites including Tinder, Whisper and Yik Yak.

Yesterday I surveyed the sixty students, generally seniors majoring in marketing or communications, about which social media sites were important to them. I asked two questions:

  • What are your three most used social media platforms in order, and
  • What ONE social media platform is most important – the one you would keep if you had to have only one?

The weighted scores of the seven social media platforms that drew more than 2 mentions from the 60 participants is shown in the following table. The weighted score was created by giving  a platform three points for every student that ranked them first in “most used”, 2 points for second and one for third. As you can see Instagram edged out Twitter, followed by Facebook and Snapchat.

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Posted in Blogging, Content, Facebook, Higher education, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Teaching SMM, twitter | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Extended Posts on LinkedIn

Posted on June 19, 2014 by

Have you tried the new extended post feature on LinkedIn? What has been your experience? What are your concerns??

The past three weeks I posted a blog article on LinkedIn.

Jeff Bullas, Neal Schaffer and several other people I respect on social media urged experimentation with the new platform. I had had early access for a while, but finally gave it a try when LinkedIn announced that it was available to all.

All three posts have been “re-purposed” articles from my two blogs, SMM 4 Business and Service C0-creation.

I have been pleased with the metrics on the three. In the following table I compare some basic measures for the original posting on WordPress to the re-posting on LinkedIn. The numbers are very favorable and they are all in addition to the original posting.

LI post summariesThe numbers for postings two and three on LinkedIn are probably bolstered by the fact that I hired @kikischirr to make illustrations for them.

My concerns

My concerns are:

  1. Irritating my most loyal followers by multiple postings.
  2. Negative SEO impact as Google allegedly penalizes for multiple postings. (When I Google “Four P’s of Content Marketing” the third organic result is my LinkedIn post and the fifth is the original on WordPress.)

Again:

  • Have YOU tried the new extended post feature on LinkedIn?
  • What has been your experience?
  • What are your concerns??

Posted in Blogging, Content, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The 10 Principles of Social Media Marketing

Posted on June 17, 2014 by

This is the last week of my summer social media marketing class. Seven MBA students, most of whom are working during the day, have gathered together twice a week from 6 to 10 pm to discuss SMM for organizations.

Last session I asked the class to generate “Ten principles of Social Media Marketing” that I could use as a starting point for my next class. These are the 10 they came up with – with very little prompting or comment from their usually talkative professor (they rarely get out early):

  1. Know your organizational culture and voice. Know your audience and community. Speak to the audience with your voice.
  2. Listen. If you do nothing else, listen to what people are saying about your organization, products or services, competitors and environment.
  3. Social media is SOCIAL: Engage your community.
  4. Be patient but measure! Progress takes time but must be monitored.
  5. You can’t be on every social platform: Be on the social platforms that your target audience or community use most.
  6. Be authentic 24/7/52.
  7. Show your passion. Involve your stakeholders.
  8. Be consistent with message, principles and tone.
  9. Produce great targeted content.
  10. Have good manners. If you are angry delay your post or tweet and read it again before posting.

It seems like a good list to me…  but I am likely biased.

Do you think they nailed it?

Are any of their 10 not really necessary?

What is number 11??

 

 

Posted in Blogging, Content, Facebook, Higher education, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Teaching SMM | 3 Comments

My Content Marketing II: #Curation, #Contributed + #Branded Content

Posted on June 12, 2014 by

In my last post on this site, I noted that Content Marketing goes back two centuries.

In my two previous careers (only going back to the last century) I was a content marketer and salesperson. In the days before blogs and email I folded newsletters, stamped and licked envelopes to get content to a targeted community of bank and other financial traders. I had also started holding seminars and offered to speak at third-party seminars and conferences.

Curating in Asia

When I went to Asia to run an institutional bond and derivatives sales operation I noted that many local desks divided their brokers into two groups: idea brokers and entertainment brokers.

I clearly wanted our desk to be identified as an idea broker as it: (1) fit my personal style, (2) it was more profitable – they paid the same commissions to both, but entertainment brokers had horrendous costs, and (3) I valued my liver and my family. So I stepped up the content activity.

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Posted in Content, Personal Learning Network, Selling, Social influence, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

My Careers in Content Marketing

Posted on June 10, 2014 by

Content Marketing

Content marketing has been a hot topic in social media and marketing for the past few years. The Google Trends chart shows a dramatic upturn in searches for content marketing since 2011.

But if you look carefully at the chart you can also see that there had been a sustained level of searches by that term from before 2004. Actually it goes back much further than 2004. Content marketing is not new: in fact the origin of content marketing is often traced back two centuries. According to an article on the Content Marketing Institute site, content marketing dates to the launch of The Furrow magazine by John Deer & Company in 1895. Other early practitioners of content marketing included Michelin, Jello, P&G and Sears.

As I noted in a previous post, I had been teaching marketing and social media marketing for several years before a conversation with and an article by Sander Biehn (@sanderbiehn) led me to the realization that I had been a content marketing and content salesperson in my two careers prior to becoming a professor. In this post I will talk about content marketing and selling in pre-social, even pre-web times.

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Posted in Blogging, Content, Selling, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber: Google Trends tells a Story

Posted on June 5, 2014 by

Did you know the careers of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga were linked? Take a look at Google Trends for clear empirical evidence:

justin and lady g

If you look closely you will see that the Google search pattern for Justin is eerily similar to that of Lady Gaga – but delayed a year. Is it really a stretch to assume that Ms. Gaga acted as some sort of mentor to the young man as his career was launched? 😉

I really enjoy Google Trends – if you haven’t in a while go to the site and check out what is trending. Find out what is hot and predict the future!

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Posted in Innovation, Internet, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Journalist – “a blogger wearing pants?” Contributed and branded #content.

Posted on June 3, 2014 by

“A Senate panel working on laws to protect the media has agreed on an official definition of a journalist. The new official definition of a journalist is a blogger wearing pants.” –Conan O’Brien

Newspapers everywhere are shrinking and dying. The story is best told in a simple chart of real ad revenues borrowed from Business Insider:

newspaper-advertising-revenue

As you can see vividly in this graph, from a peak in 2000 inflation-adjusted ad revenues for newspapers have dropped to 1950s levels. The closings, job losses and service cuts are what you would expect in an industry that has seen revenue decline by 70% in less than 15 years.

Pressure from social media and internet offerings has forced existing news companies to explore hybrid content approaches that many journalists see as a threat to integrity. Two popular “blended” content approaches blur the lines between journalism vs. blogging and journalism vs. advertising:

  1. Contributed Content, and
  2. Native Advertising or Branded Content.

These blended approaches also neatly address the pending crisis in content marketing brought about by Content Shock, the overwhelming amount of content available and the Post-Like era of social media, where social platforms make it harder for organizations to reach customers without paying for access. Organizations who can afford it, can use these techniques to reach an audience saturated with content, who are no longer easy to reach out to on social media.

These blended approaches are controversial though as discussed below:

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Posted in Blogging, Content, Internet, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

#Blogs – Something New, Something New

Posted on May 29, 2014 by

There are over 300 million blogs… but don’t worry more are still coming!

These are seven new blogs are from my summer SMM course. Why not take a look at one or two that interest you?

Encourage a couple eager new bloggers!

Getting to Know Israel – The author is a young Israeli women attending an MBA program in Virginia. In her blog she seeks to share what it is like to live and grow up in her home country.

Six months to Fluency – Sharing the journey of learning a new language (Norwegian – but the focus is on learning a foreign language).

Life with a LagomRabbitorph – Rabbits are wonderful pets. Really! This blog explains why.

Top Ten Sporting Moments – The author shares his most enjoyable moments as a sports fan and elicits those of this community’s.

Working out Stress – Exercise has many benefits – often overlooked is the management and reduction of stress. A how-to guide to working out stress.

BALD HEAD ISLAND WILDLIFE discusses the unique ecosystem and wildlife of Bald Head Island, NC. Save the turtles!

Goldsmith Barbeque and Cooking – Smoking and Barbeque VA and NC Style. Smokin!

And one more from my Spring undergraduate SMM class:

Faith and Hot Coffee – Living an active life with Lyme disease.

Please check out a couple that interest you and give a new blogger some feedback!

 

BTW the Beatles third or fifth album (depending on how you count), SN/SN, included the German version of “I want to hold your hand”…

Posted in Blogging, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Why Teach Social Media Marketing: #Context and #Integration

Posted on May 27, 2014 by

In a post last Tuesday, I noted that the students in my social media marketing classes are a great source of information on new social platforms. For example: Instagram is tops…Keep an eye on Yik Yak, Snapchat and Tinder…Facebook is for baby pictures.

I also learn new details and tricks of using Facebook, WordPress and Instagram in every class. It was clearly appropriate to start the discussion of teaching social media marketing with the quote: “If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it.”  – Yogi Bhajan

Why teach social media marketing?

If college students are so well versed on Social Media, why do I firmly believe that every marketing major, every business major and in fact every major would benefit from taking a course in social media marketing?

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Posted in Blogging, Content, Facebook, Higher education, Internet, Klout, LinkedIn, Mobile computing, Personal Learning Network, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Teaching SMM, twitter | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment