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Scott Parent is the Vice President of Search and Social Media Optimization at MediaTrust. His division specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, and Social Media Production and Optimization.

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Slice Up The Social Media Pie

Written on
November 15th 2007
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by Scott Parent  |
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applepie.jpgLike many of you, I attended the recent ad:tech conference in New York. It was my first time. I was actually surprised at how big it was. There were people everywhere. Exhibitors occupied three floors of the Hilton in midtown and all were doing their best to grab a slice of the online-ad-space pie.

Admittedly, I didn’t stop and talk to every vendor, but there seemed to be a lot of the same. There were dozens of affiliate networks, lots of ad-serving platforms, and an abundance of SEOs. What I didn’t see represented was any sort of Social Media Optimization services. Why not?

I talked to about two dozen people that were looking for a way to make their business stand out online while not breaking the bank. I would talk about all the products and services MediaTrust offered, but what really made people’s eyes light up was the discussion about how we could employ social media techniques to help build their brands and generate traffic to their site.

I met with a gentleman who had started a gourmet cookie company. He was at ad:tech to try and get some marketing ideas that wouldn’t cost him half his monthly revenue. After talking with him about what his goals were, we hashed out an idea to create a company blog. Customers love to put a human face on a company and if you can position yourself as the little guy that’s trying to make a go of the cookie business, people will respond to that. We also talked about creating videos that offer baking tips or avoiding common pitfalls when making cookies at home. Obviously you don’t want to give away your business secrets on a blog or a podcast, but you can add value to your client base while building brand loyalty. The aspiring cookie mogul I spoke to seemed to get that and hopefully we’ll be doing business together soon.

You can hardly read a publication today where there isn’t an article about Facebook, MySpace, Digg, or any number of other web 2.0 businesses. Why aren’t more companies trying to harness this momentum? At MediaTrust we saw a demand in the marketplace and created our Search and Social Media Optimization Division. The response at ad:tech shows we made the right decision. Businesses finally understand the importance of these new social media tools, but most don’t have the first idea on how to go about implementing them into their marketing plan. Of those that have tried, many have failed simply because they tried to shove an old marketing paradigm into a new media mold. Here are some things to consider before you get started:

1. Approach new initiatives with the intent of being genuine.

Don’t try and force press releases onto Digg or Facebook. Instead, have your CEO write a blog post about some of the trials and tribulations your company has faced and overcome. Better yet, propose a dilemma and ask for your customers suggestions on how to tackle it. Corporate communication is rapidly evolving into a conversation with your client base. Embrace that shift. Think about how you can engage your customers and be sincere in your attempts.

2. Understand the communities you are targeting

You can’t go to MySpace, sign up for an account, and then immediately try and spam their users with posts about car insurance. I see companies doing things like this every day. And they fail. Then, when I have a conversation with them about social media they say “we’ve tried MySpace and it didn’t work.” If I continue to press them on their attempts it becomes very clear that not a single decision maker in their organization understands the landscape of the communities they are trying to target. You need to do some research. Become a member of Facebook and Digg. Spend some time in the space and understand what motivates their users. Then when it comes time for you to promote your stuff you’ll have an understanding of what it takes to cut through the clutter.

3. Make social media a priority, not an afterthought

Often companies treat their social media optimization efforts as a “me too” type of project. Instead of hiring a person experienced in this field, they look around the office and grab the newest intern. After all, Jimmy is 19 and has his own Flickr profile; he must know what he’s doing, right? Wrong! You usually only get one or two chances to get it right before your company gets branded a spammer by the social media elite. Make sure you use those opportunities wisely by coming up with a strong plan and executing it properly. Hire the right person or firm to do this for you. Your efforts will be rewarded.

4. Provide content, not advertising

Think about the commercials that air during the Superbowl - we see them more as entertainment and less as advertising, right? That is by design. The online users of today want Superbowl-like commercials all the time. They will watch an ad if they think it adds value to their online experience. Stop trying to peddle press releases and marketing-speak and focus on creating content (i.e. the video of baking tips noted above). The result will still be increased visibility and brand awareness, but it will have been done in a way that entertained as well as informed.

***

The world of online marketing is changing. Rapidly. Do you want to wait and jump on the social media bandwagon in a year or two, or do you want be a pioneer and take a major slice of the pie now? To answer that question I’d suspect you’d only need to look at how you’d characterize your company as a whole - are you a follower or a leader? Figure that out and you have your answer.



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Scott, you should get your content syndicated on Social Media Today.

Posted by Adam Metz | 11:14 am on November 16, 2007.

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