Honest Marketer

Social media allows us to do so much more than even a few years ago. It allows us to interact with people and businesses otherwise inaccessible. For me, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are weekly play places and my fun turned into my internship. When I started on Twitter a few years ago, I followed a few of the local SEM and SEO companies who I was interested in working for. One of those was Anvil Media in Portland, OR. Their president and founder, Kent Lewis, was another person I started following and interacting with. I was using these tools to hopefully help me in the future, which it turned out, they did.

This all couldn’t have happened without some help from some friends, another part of social media. Kristy Bolsinger, from RealNetworks, came and talked with my marketing class at Willamette. I friend-ed her on Twitter and she infected me with Foursquare Fever. At that point I had a different marketing internship for a company who created cockpit awareness hardware and software. They had a tough first quarter and decided not to have an intern. I launched into action and the friendship that Kristy and I had really helped. She helped with boosting my resume and sent it off to a few people she knows, including Kent Lewis. She also told me to get involved with SEMpdx.

SEMpdx is an amazing networking and business organization. I wrote about my meeting with them Best of SEMpdx so I won’t go into that.

What I didn’t talk about was meeting Kent Lewis and introducing myself to him. I had asked him about what to wear on Twitter before the meeting, which he suggested “pants”. It was a great conversation starter! After talking with him I got connected with Hallie Jansen from Anvil, had a meeting and the rest is history. You’re looking at the Anvil intern. Without the friendships that I cultivated on Twitter and my enthusiasm for SEM, SEO and social media it could have never happened, but I am so glad it did.

THANKS INTERNET!!!

Nick Footer Social Media, Twitter Anvil Media, Social Media, Twitter

Recently, Kristy Bolsinger came and gave an awesome talk to my MBA marketing strategies class. For most professors it seems to be difficult to get real world experience in this field while teaching and with it being such a new field they normally have dropped the ball. Kristy rocked it and I just saw she is speaking in Portland again on Monday at Social Fresh Portland. I wish I could go, but I have four classes that day! Anyways, while explaining social media to the class she asked if anyone was on Foursquare. No one in the class new what she was talking about, but I checked it out on my phone. I’m now addicted!

Foursquare is a location based service (LBS) that allows you to follow your friends and compete to become the mayor of your favorite spots and give other users things to do and advise. I have now infected a few of my friends and the game is on. In looking up Kristy, she posted an entire article about her LBS Addiction on Wednesday. I’m afraid to try another one, but Gowalla looks sweet! In fact, I just downloaded it to my Droid.

If you are on either site search me and get connected!

Now the best part about using these applications is the funny look on people face when you explain the app. “Why would you want someone to know where you are at ALL TIMES?” My question normally back is why wouldn’t you? It comes down to what social media is about. Sharing yourself. If someone wants to stalk me, guess what…The internet already lets you do that. Now throw in some competitive edges and I’m all about it. Not stalking, but sharing for the betterment of human kind. As of now I am the mayor of 5 places and have 8 badges, but my empire is growing. Why isn’t yours?

Nick Footer Social Media, Spot Light Foursquare, Social Media

First of all, the Long Tail idea has been around for the past 50 years, but Chris Anderson coined the phrase in 2004 in a Wired magazine article. He explains how selling to a niche market is useful to companies such as Amazon or Netflix who sell a lot of unique items. They found that a demographic of people who would buy more of the non popular “non hit” items. From this the Long Tail was formed.

Social Media has helped many companies reach their customers in ways that they never realized was possible. New ways of connecting and marketing are being created everyday to reach more and more of the long tail of products and services. As these new ways of interacting with customers evolve and grows it takes some of the traditional market. The days of TV ads is dying due to services like TiVo, E-mail marketing is eliminated by spam blockers, direct mail gets thrown away and online advertising gets looked over or eliminated with RSS readers. We have to start changing with the times. The days of interrupting us over dinner with a phone call or commercial are not over, but dying.

As social media gets bigger at some point doing old school marketing will actually become the Long Tail, the way of reaching the minority. I’m not saying it’s today or even tomorrow, but in the coming future these two markets will swap. There will never be a time where advertising, direct mail or telemarketing will completely fade off the scene but pretty soon we will be putting it on life support.

Now you may be asking what can I do? We have many of the products available above and have a team of designers at our fingertip to create and mold your marketing vision. If you want to take things into your own hands I would suggest starting by creating a LinkedIn account, Facebook fan Page, and start Twittering. These are all great tools to start you off in social media that will help you get to the Long Tail of your customers. Now these all take your time and energy, but what would you rather part with, your time or your money. The way the market is now, I sure hope it’s your time, but if it’s not be sure to call us and we’ll gladly help with you with your money.

Nick Footer
LinkedIn
Facebook

Nick Footer Books, Social Media Facebook, LinkedIn, long tail, Social Media, Twitter

Sign Up-Go to Twitter and sign up for a free account

Fill Out Your Profile-Fill out everything and include a picture. Part of Social Media and Twitter is making real relationships with real people and a picture helps.

Pick a Twitter Program-I suggest Twirl or TweetDeck. I use Twirl at work and Tweetdeck at home. I like both because one is extremely simple and the other is extremely complex. I would start with Twirl.

Find Some Fellow Tweeters-If you read any blogs, see if they Tweet. Many of them do since it is such a huge traffic builder. Search for people using the Find People tab on your twitter home page.

Listen-Watch your Twitter stream for 1 week. This lets you see what is acceptable conversation and how to interact with your fellows. As you listen to others, see who they are responding to and follow them if they interest you.

Respond-Start Retweeting others content and answering questions that others have through the @ feature. Begin to add different links you like into your twitter stream. If you blog, add some of your posts.

Connect-This is the all important mother load. I have made many connections with people that I otherwise would have not had the ability to. Lisa Hoffmann, Scott Hepburn, Jesse Liebman, Kirsten Wright, Mike Volpe and many more. Now I have only met one of these people in person, but each of them have helped my company or my person growth.

Nick Footer

Nick Footer Social Media, Twitter Connection, How To, Social Media, Twitter

This is a re-post of a post I did on the PRstore Facebook Fan Page:

Recently, I added one sentence to my email signature and great things have been happening. I inserted how to connect with me through my three social media platforms (See sentence below). I have had quite a bit of success connecting with people that I would have never gone looking for on my own. As my networks grow I increase my usefulness to my clients, company and friends. Over the past month, I’ve seen my Facebook friends increased by over 100 and gained about 10 new followers on Twitter via my signature. It works!

Your signature is part of you. The loops, messiness, crossing of T’s and dotting of I’s. If a scribble can convey so much, why can’t your electronic signature? So here is my point: Why not let people get to know you again? Change your email signature from the blah to banging!

Nick Footer Social Media Facebook, LinkedIn, Signature, Social Media, Twitter