Archive for Social Media Training
Caribou Coffee Brews Social Media Crisis
Caribou Coffee’s announcement last week, that the company was shuttering stores and laying off employees, proves that relying exclusively on a press release to deliver unpleasant news is a bad strategy in the digital age.
Biggest Moments In Social Media Marketing — Wins and Fails
As the worldwide social media audience continues to grow, the impact of brands’ wins and fails are amplified that much more. If you create a big win, your victory is awesome. But if you fail, your mistake gets played out on the biggest virtual public stage.
We can learn a lot from the companies that roll out successful campaigns that are well received. But how about the fails? It seems to me that the erroneous-tweet type of fails are downright human error and lack of good judgment. But the fails that are well-intentioned campaigns that end up bombing could be a lack of deep understanding of audience demographic and deep understanding of (extended) audience relationship with the brand. Of course, even if a campaign goes over well with the exact target demographic, the naysayers can easily jump all over a brand’s campaign with their $0.02 and create a viral negative meme.
When a brand screws up with their social media communication, does it affect your relationship with that brand? Do you go out your way to avoid buying that brand’s products? I know I certainly have. Every employee of a company is a brand advocate; each person is representing what the brand is about. For example, one time I came across some very snarky tweeting by a fairly senior member of staff at one particular company and it really turned me off the entire company. Hm. What’s the solution? I say investing in better company-wide training and cultivating the most awesome company culture. That’s a whole other subject. 
Meantime, take a look at this fun infographic for some fascinating facts and stats on examples of what worked well in social media and what didn’t. Click the image to view the infographic full size.
Source: Biggest Moments in Social Media 2012
Did you learn data here that is helpful for your own marketing? What else would you add? Leave a comment below!
Biggest Moments In Social Media Marketing — Wins and Fails
As the worldwide social media audience continues to grow, the impact of brands’ wins and fails are amplified that much more. If you create a big win, your victory is awesome. But if you fail, your mistake gets played out on the biggest virtual public stage.
We can learn a lot from the companies that roll out successful campaigns that are well received. But how about the fails? It seems to me that the erroneous-tweet type of fails are downright human error and lack of good judgment. But the fails that are well-intentioned campaigns that end up bombing could be a lack of deep understanding of audience demographic and deep understanding of (extended) audience relationship with the brand. Of course, even if a campaign goes over well with the exact target demographic, the naysayers can easily jump all over a brand’s campaign with their $0.02 and create a viral negative meme.
When a brand screws up with their social media communication, does it affect your relationship with that brand? Do you go out your way to avoid buying that brand’s products? I know I certainly have. Every employee of a company is a brand advocate; each person is representing what the brand is about. For example, one time I came across some very snarky tweeting by a fairly senior member of staff at one particular company and it really turned me off the entire company. Hm. What’s the solution? I say investing in better company-wide training and cultivating the most awesome company culture. That’s a whole other subject.
Meantime, take a look at this fun infographic for some fascinating facts and stats on examples of what worked well in social media and what didn’t. Click the image to view the infographic full size.
Source: Biggest Moments in Social Media 2012
Did you learn data here that is helpful for your own marketing? What else would you add? Leave a comment below!
New Year 2013: One-Word Theme of ABUNDANCE
At the end of each year, I like to select a single word as my main theme for the coming year. I’ve found this practice to have a profound effect in all areas of my life. Sometimes the results are not obvious right away. But, as the year progresses and I reflect back on all that I created and experienced, the one-word theme is always prevalent.
Over the years, each one-word theme seems to build on the previous ones:
2008 – FOCUS: This was a breakout year of focusing almost exclusively on positioning myself as a leading Facebook marketing expert.
2009 – INFLUENCE: I examined who and what was influencing me, and ended up choosing to leave my marriage and create a new life… which caused the floodgates to open even wider in my business. This was also a big year of building out my own influence and reach.
2010 – TEAM: I moved away from employing seven virtual assistants, hired two incredible local assistants and built a much more robust team.
2011 – COMMITMENT: This word made me step up my game in all areas and deepen my commitment to myself emotionally and spiritually, which paved the way for an amazing 2012!
2012 – GROWTH: You know the saying, “Be careful what you ask for?”
2012 – The Impact of Growth
When I chose “GROWTH” for 2012, I mainly intended it for my business expansion. However, I also know that in order to successfully grow our outer world, we absolutely must grow our inner world… otherwise, any external growth cannot be sustained. Our inner world literally has to be a “vibrational match” in order to create certain levels of achievement.
I’ve loved working with my high-level business coach, Anne McKevitt, throughout 2012. Anne’s support has helped to boost my brand, expand my positioning, grow my product line and create many successful launches this year. For sure, it’s been a year of extreme GROWTH.
Plus, throughout the second half of 2012, I re-attended several programs led by my spiritual teacher, Esperanza Universal at the S.O.U.L. Institute. The results of my continued inner discovery have helped to bring even more clarity to my journey and where I want to “steer my ship” in 2013.
2013 – Focus on ABUNDANCE
a·bun·dance | 1. an extremely plentiful or oversufficient quantity or supply. | 2. overflowing fullness: abundance of the heart. | 3. affluence; wealth: the enjoyment of abundance.
I’ve chosen “ABUNDANCE” for 2013 primarily to reflect my intended state of mind: to know and trust that there is always an abundance of resources for EVERYTHING. There is time and space to accomplish (and enjoy!) everything I want in my business and personal life.
I want to be “time abundant.” Time is the great equalizer. 
Everyone has the exact same 24 hours in a day, yet it’s how we manage our priorities each day that counts.
My intention is to ramp up my mastery of time-management (or, more realistically, self-management) in order to feel in a state of flow, ease and grace. As opposed to feeling rushed, pushing hard against the clock to meet deadlines, and allowing certain personal priorities to fall through the cracks. Also, to check in with myself – what is the purpose of pushing and rushing and sacrificing? Success is a journey, not a destination!
I know I can be of far greater service to much more people around the world when my own cup is filled up.
I intend to spend less time in front of the computer and/or tied to my mobile devices… and more time in nature, with friends and enjoying creative pursuits. As a result of taking more “time off,” I know I’ll end up being MUCH more productive, efficient and successful during my designated working hours.
As for time, all men have it in abundance. — George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon
This is all going to take dedicated effort, at first. I have all the right systems and support in place. And now, as mentioned above, it’s the inner game that requires the most mastery. To know that I deserve to take time off, I’m worthy of being supported 100% and of delegating to my highly competent team, and that I can’t possibly do everything myself even when I want to! Lol.
Business Abundance
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life. — Wayne Dyer
My theme of Abundance will impact the flow of opportunities. I’m fortunate to receive a decent number of speaking and consulting invitations nationally and internationally. However, throughout 2012, I was deliberately mindful about staying closer to home and focusing on further expanding my online products and presence. I did very little U.S. travel and just one trip abroad. But in 2013, I’m casting the net wider again and already have many bookings on the calendar including to Canada, Bulgaria, the UK … (and Australia in the pipeline!)
And, my year-long coaching program – BUSINESS & BEYOND CLUB – kicks off with 50 amazing heart-centered entrepreneurs. I’m honored to guide this group to greater business growth and social media marketing success throughout 2013.
I do have plans for more Facebook marketing products (from beginner to advanced), social media training courses, live events, private consulting, and done-for-you social media services. The latter is already very popular and I predict will grow exponentially in Q1 2013 when my agency officially launches. Stay tuned! (Meantime, email smservices@marismith.com to inquire about our three levels of service packages).
For live events, on April 6th, 2013, I’m hosting a one-day social media marketing IMMERSION open to the public, for a nominal fee. (Registration page opens early January). Members of my Business & Beyond Club and alumni of past Intensives get to attend this event as well as an exclusive mastermind the day before, April 5th. (This live Immersion event is timed to coincide with those folks also attending my friend Mike Stelzner’s Social Media Marketing World on April 7, 8 and 9).
And, each January, I like to host a mega flagship free webinar. 2012 was all about Facebook marketing and I was tempted to do a repeat, v2.0. (I will host more free Facebook marketing webinars and offer more Facebook training courses in Q1 and Q2 – stay tuned). However, I’ve chosen to focus on video marketing for the signature January webinar, and am featuring special guest experts, Catherine Hedden and David Gumpel of Films About Me. On Thursday, January 24th, you’re invited to join us streaming live for an information-packed webinar called 2013: THE YEAR OF THE VIDEO! (Click here to save your seat).
Got Facebook questions? Come join my community of over 485,000 Friends, Fans and subscribers Followers! Just click the Subscribe Follow and Like buttons below to connect with me on Facebook!
Planetary Abundance
I’m excited to see what unfolds in this coming year. I see 2013 as a year of true Abundance in all areas of my business and personal life. And, in fact, with the incredible energetic shifts we just experienced throughout December 2012, I feel that the whole world will begin to experience more abundance.
Life is a field of unlimited possibilities. — Deepak Chopra
Enjoyed this post? Tweet to let me know – just click the button below (opens in a popup, you’ll have a chance to see and edit the tweet!):
Tweet to @MariSmith
Now it’s your turn! How do you define Abundance?
And, do you choose a one-word theme for the year?
Please share in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
Category: business and beyond club, Business Building Strategies, business coaching, facebook training advanced, facebook training beginner, mike stelzner, one word theme, Personal Branding, Personal Sharing, Relationship Marketing, social media camp, social media coaching, social media courses, social media marketing world, Social Media Training, success coaching, the year of the video, year of abundance /
10 Good Questions Answered on How to Train College Athletes to Use Social Media Responsibly
How do you get college athletes to use social media without putting the institution's reputation at risk? Train them to do it a better way. Here's how one athletics media director handled the challenge.
Social Media Training – Social Media Marketing – 65% Pay Out
Hot Converting Niche, Designed by Real World Social Media Marketers. The win at Social Media Series allows Businesses to Navigate the Social Terrain. Sign up! http://www.winatsocialmedia.com/affiliates.html Affiliates make $43.55 per Sale
Social Media Training – Social Media Marketing – 65% Pay Out
The latest from: Online Social Marketing Tips
Avoiding the Smartphone Sniffles – Stop the Hack Attack
As the use of smartphones continues to grow the opportunity for hackers to exploit security phone networks also increases. Here are some simple actions you can do to protect your personal information.
Win Free Tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2012
***UPDATE*** Congrats to Joy Dekkers and Taylor Howe, the winners of this free ticket contest. See Joy’s winning comment here.
Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media marketing event of the year?
Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our fourth-annual Social Media Success Summit. This is our best event ever! And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.
First, what is this event?
Social Media Success Summit 2012 is a large online conference dedicated to helping marketers and business owners master social media marketing.
More than 1400 businesses have already signed up, including Wells Fargo, Motorola, Kraft Foods, Fox Broadcasting, Autodesk, Salesforce.com, Hubbell, American Heart Association, NASA, Marriott, Vanguard, HP, Verizon Wireless, McGraw-Hill, and hundreds of smaller businesses.
Twenty-seven of the world’s most respected social media experts will share their strategies with you.
Hear from Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Chris Brogan (author, Google+ for Business), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Jason Falls (author, No Bullshit Social Media), Frank Eliason (author, @YourService), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Mark Schaefer (author, The Tao of Twitter), Dave Kerpen (author, Likeable Social Media), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), C.C. Chapman (co-author, Content Rules), Kipp Bodnar (co-author, The B2B Social Media Book), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from LinkedIn, Dell, Ford, Citigroup and Citrix—just to mention a few.
Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, measuring success, converting activities to sales, and much more! Check out all the sessions.
At last summer’s summit, 98% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.
How can you win tickets?
We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 140,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.
Two ways to win:
There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:
#1: Twitter Entry
Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:
I want to win a ticket to Social Media Success Summit http://bit.ly/winSMSS12 via: @smexaminer #winSMSS12
You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSMSS12 hashtag included.
#2: Written Entry
The winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (140,000+ subscribers)!
Simply write about your biggest social media marketing challenge in the comments box below (scroll down).
The judges (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and Jay Baer, founder of Convince and Convert) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.
What you need to know:
- You can enter to win either or both prizes.
- Tweets must contain #winSMSS12.
- The deadline is Friday, April 20, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
- If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
- No purchase is necessary to win.
We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!
8 Tips for Training Social Media Marketers
Does your business have a plan for bringing on social media marketers?
Are you wondering how to work with experts outside the company while maintaining a consistent brand experience?
Before you jump in headfirst or turn over the social media reins , check out the following eight tips to make sure your employees or contractors correctly represent your company.
#1: Create a Social Style Guide
Agreeing on a style for outward-facing content helps solidify your company’s identity and character, and is the starting point of good social media employee training, because it puts all agents on the same page. Perhaps the biggest hurdle in creating a style guide is to define your company’s voice.
If you’re working business to business in, say, the medical field, you’ll likely want to employ a professional voice. But if you’re working with freelance web developers who spend a good chunk of time every day on FailBlog, you can relax and crack some jokes. The point is to know your audience and have agents create content with your audience in mind.
#2: Define Social Goals
When creating your style guide, keep your goals in mind. What are you looking for from your presence on Facebook?
- Do you want to get users talking?
- Do you want their feedback so you can build a better product?
- Do you want them to advertise your brand for you by sharing your content?
Once you establish your goals, you can amend your style guide accordingly.
If your goal is to increase fan interaction, have agents create wall posts that are interesting to the community and ask engaging questions. If your goal is to seed your email list, create an incentive (like a giveaway) for signing up, and have your agents regularly announce the prizes and winners on the wall.
rue21's engaging, community-relevant status update garners hundreds of likes and comments.
#3: Set Parameters and Grant Freedom
No two people are the same, meaning that no two social media agents will write the same way. Having a style guide that defines voice doesn’t mean that you need to build a bank of terms and phrases for your employees to copy and paste, effectively turning them into bland robot parrots.
With your company’s overall voice outlined in your style guide, encourage your agents to be creative. To add depth to your company’s presence, have agents sign off on wall posts with their first names or departments.
#4: Have a Probationary Period
Practice makes perfect, and that truth certainly holds in the world of social media. A probationary period in which new agents respond to wall posts but first submit their responses to a superior prior to posting is a great way to get agents up to speed. With direction and edits from the higher-ups, new agents will become accustomed to your brand’s style and voice quickly.
#5: Mandate Social Frequency
You wouldn’t leave a phone ringing indefinitely in your office. It’s poor customer service. For the same reason, don’t leave wall posts on your Facebook page unanswered. Unanswered wall posts are far worse than an unanswered phone call, because the customer’s request or question is out there for the world to see—with a time stamp on it. Don’t let your page’s visitors get the impression you don’t care about your customers.
Make it policy for your social media agents to engage on your Facebook wall frequently—addressing all questions and concerns posted. The great thing is that this works both ways. Because your Facebook wall is public, you’ll experience increased customer loyalty when they see that your agents respond to all requests promptly.
Bose demonstrates phenomenal customer service, answering a question posed on their wall within minutes.
#6: Team Up
Once your employees pass through the initial probationary period, it still isn’t a good idea to have just one person responsible for your social media presence. Teams with two or more can moderate, edit and sharpen each other, giving you a refined, robust presence. Often it’s a good idea to have one person who’s more social media–savvy and another with a traditional marketing background.
The social media expert can keep the marketing professional in line with social media practices, while the marketing professional can make sure your brand’s reputation and message are upheld. If content hasn’t had at least two sets of eyes on it, don’t let it go public.
#7: Take Cues From the Pros
If your company is making its first foray into social media, take a look at a dozen or so of your top competitors and a few brands that do things right, like Starbucks or Coca-Cola. Take the good, leave the bad and add in your company’s unique voice. Formulating your approach as a team will take care of the training process for everyone, all at once.
#8: Prepare to Answer Anything
Whether you like it or not, your Facebook wall is a catch-all for praise, requests, demands, complaints, threats and everything in between. Make sure your social media team is ready to answer every wall post, even the disparaging ones, and is able to do so with respect and kindness.
Outline a procedure for agents dealing with irate fans. But don’t just prepare for the negative; be ready to capitalize on positive feedback by incorporating it in marketing materials or a “reviews” section on your page or website.
This complaint should probably have been directed to website personnel, but Newegg's social media agents respond promptly and respectfully.
What do you think? What do you do to prepare employees to represent your brand on social media? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
Businesses to Fully Embrace Social Media In 2012
The vast majority of Americans are actively using social media. Has your business acted on this fact?
Are you looking for a way to keep pace with the quickly evolving field of social media marketing?
If so, Social Media Examiner has some exciting news…
But first, consider this story.
Imagine your business competing for your state’s “Best Brand” title against huge names such as Target, Dairy Queen and Wheaties.
Now imagine simply leveraging the power of social media and taking the grand prize! Wouldn’t that just blow your mind?
Well that’s exactly what happened to Creative Memories!
This Minnesota-based scrapbook supplies company beat 64 other brands to take the “Best Brand in Minnesota” title! And they simply relied on social media to make it happen.
Creative Memories won Minnesota's Best Brand by leveraging their existing fans via social media.
Recognizing the Opportunity
Creative Memories’ community manager Kristen Jacobs discovered a single tweet as she was monitoring Twitter for mentions of her company.
It turned out the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal was hosting a brand challenge. And one of America’s biggest retailers—Target—was in the running! Target had nearly 5 million Facebook fans at the time.
Jacobs’ immediate response was to post the article on their Twitter and Facebook pages, calling on their 60,000 fans to vote for them.
Creative Memories learned first on Twitter about the Minnesota Brand Challenge competition.
Creative Memories’ fans not only responded, but also voted for them repeatedly through six rounds of the competition against nationally acclaimed brands until Creative Memories emerged the winner of “Minnesota’s Best Brand.”
“We learned that we may not be as recognized, have as many customers or make as much money as the brands we were up against, but we do have something none of them have. And that’s the ability to use social media to mobilize a passionate fan base to action when needed,” said Jacobs.
Now you might be wondering, “How did the community manager know what to do, or how to respond?”
That’s a great question. But think about this: “What would have happened if she hadn’t responded or hadn’t known what to do?”
To be successful in social media, you need to know what to do when an opportunity knocks.
More than ever, it’s critical to keep up with social media changes, to stay competitive and to learn the tactics and strategies that produce the best results and the greatest return for your business.
Has your business tapped the massive opportunities presented by social media marketing?
Recent Statistics on Social Media Adoption
Here are a few reasons why you should invest heavily in social media:
Mass adoption of social media: Nearly 80% of all active U.S. Internet users regularly visit social media sites (Nielsen). And while consumers spend 25% of their Internet time on social sites, Facebook has become the most visited website in the world. Your customers are there.
Social media benefits businesses: Among marketers who include social media as part of their overall strategy, 97% agree that it provides benefits and value to their business (eMarketer).
Social media improves branding: In a survey of more than 700 marketers, 88% of respondents found that social media helps grow brand awareness. Social media also benefited marketers by allowing them to engage in dialogue (85%) and increase sales and partnerships (58%). An additional 41% of marketers said it helped reduce costs (Wildfire Interactive).
These stats are just a sample of the power of social media.
Are you “all in” with your social media activities? Want to fast-track your success?
Social Media Examiner Announces Social Media Success Summit 2012
“Social media has changed radically in the last 12 months,” acknowledges Michael Stelzner, (CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner). “Google+ entered the stage, Facebook introduced Timeline for pages, YouTube unveiled their new layout, Twitter got a complete revamp and then there’s Pinterest. It’s a completely different world and there’s a need to discover new strategies and new ways to market your business with these platforms.”
To equip you with the latest strategies for marketing with Google+, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, Michael Stelzner and the people you trust from Social Media Examiner have recruited 27 of the world’s most respected social media experts to share their newest tips and advice at Social Media Success Summit 2012.
If you’re not familiar with these events, they’re large online conferences (so you don’t need to travel).
Typically, thousands gather at Social Media Examiner Success Summits to discover new social media tactics, network with peers and discover how other successful businesses are using social media.
What People Say About Social Media Success Summit
Last year, 3,000 people attended the online summit.
Some of the organizations represented were Coca Cola, Visa, Microsoft, 3M, Honda, Kraft Foods, SAP, Wells Fargo, Disney, AutoDesk, LexisNexis, Four Seasons Hotels, Fuddruckers, EMC and thousands of small businesses.
Here’s what some of them had to say:
“Thoroughly wowed by the format and content. I will most definitely attend future summits,” Kim Kiefer
“Guaranteed to improve the way you approach social media. I’ll be back next year!” Derrick Sweet
“Phenomenal topics and knowledgeable speakers. The ability to ‘catch up’ on sessions thanks to recordings was a selling point for me due to scheduling,” Erin Caples
“This is the most comprehensive training I have yet seen on social media. The lineup of presenters was most impressive and the whole summit exceeded my expectations,” Suzanne Kiraly
Meet Your Presenters
Among the 27 social media experts who will be presenting at this summit are:
- Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group
- Chris Brogan, author of Google+ for Business
- Mari Smith, co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
- Brian Solis, author of Engage
- Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company
- Frank Eliason, author of @YourService
- Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch
- Jay Baer, co-author of The Now Revolution\
- Jason Falls, co-author No Bullshit Social Media
- Mark Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter
- C.C. Chapman, co-author of Content Rules
- Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Social Media
- Jesse Stay, author of Google+ for Dummies
- Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies
- And experts from Dell, Ford, LinkedIn, Citigroup, Citrix and many others.
Why Attend Social Media Success Summit?
Here are a few reasons:
- Learn the latest and best social media business-building tactics.
- Learn about tracking and measuring social media return on investment.
- Learn how to sell with Google+, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest.
- Learn how content marketing fits in with social media.
- You’ll have the opportunity to network via LinkedIn with thousands of people who are expected to attend.
- You’ll interact live with experts from big B2B and B2C brands such as Ford, Dell, LinkedIn, Citigroup and Citrix.
- Keep learning even after the summit is over—With the session recordings and the transcripts, you can keep studying the material for up to one year from the date of your ticket purchase.
Want to save some money? If you reserve your spot now, you’ll save 50%. Click here for details.
What do you think? Would you be interested in learning what the world’s top social media experts are doing that makes them so successful? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
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