Happy Christmas from MarketingM8′s blog and a retrospective.
Looking back over my blog posts in 2011, it’s clear that some of my initial posts were either way too long, way too short or just plain dull, but we all have to start somewhere and the beauty of social media is that we can learn from our mistakes and people let us know when stuff is good!
I thought my social media journey, as a blogger, might provide a good retrospective, so here’s 19 out of my 132 posts.
11-01-11 Social media growth and development. To blog or not to blog.
Although double the standard blog post content, ‘To blog or not to blog’ was one of my earliest posts that received some very encouraging and positive comments, this is basically what bloggers live for.
My next post was one of many on the controversial subject on social influence and Klout!
16-02-11 How’s your Klout score looking today? Are YOU making too much Social Media noise??
It’s very interesting to see that my StumbleUpon views are still very minimal at this stage and my next post about Big Brother, social media and Viewdle, which I consider a great story, only got 1 StumbleUpon view and that was from me!
Social Media: Blogs versus Websites, is this modern warfare?
The subject of blogs versus websites is still very current and blogs have clearly got the edge as far as Google is concerned, currently my blog global ranking according to Alexa is 160,000 or so, which isn’t bad. Social media created that great ranking and I currently have 308 individual links, I should add that some very expensive websites take decades to gain such ranking and traffic! Small wonder that blogs are the way to go.
14-03-11 Social Media satire & how Social Media is changing our world!
In March 2011 I was feeling gloomy based on the fact that I was spending a lot of time driving around lecturing construction directors on social media, getting warm responses from interested parties, but nowhere near enough business. Social media satire edition 1 got a record 306 StumbleUpon votes, 186 Tweets and 88 Facebook LIKES; I wasn’t exactly earning much, but at least people liked my social media cartoons!
My next post about blogging received a lot of interest too and I was really getting into writing, suddenly it didn’t seem to be as difficult to produce good blog posts as it once had.
Try Buffer, you'll love it!
My 1st Buffer interview was a great turning point for me as a blogger, the 1st of some great social media interviews and the beginning of a great friendship with Leo and Joel from Buffer!
26-04-11 Social Media development: Construction Marketing UK joins Mike Rowe’s Trades Hub and helps promote Social Media to construction!
Joining Mike Rowe’s Trades Hub provided me with a great source of blog traffic and some excellent contacts, plus Tony often awards my blog with Blog Post of the Week or Month and I’m truly grateful for that!
23-05-11 Social Media disaster! Klout collapses, Empire Avenue crashed or hacked? End of the world??
Read the link above and share a tough day on social media!
27-06-11 Blogged down by your niche? Social Media satire edition 16.
It took me 6 months to fully appreciate that trying to help the UK construction sector out of a rut by introducing social media as a cost effective alternative to traditional marketing was pretty much a waste of time.
04-07-11 A social media sensation as the world goes gaga over Google!
Google+, yes please!
Taking my focus off the construction sector seemed to pay off when my blog post on the new Google+ saw nearly 500 StumbleUpon viewers!
18-07-11 Social media time management and Google +. Social media satire 19. July was clearly a turning point traffic wise, StumbleUpon provided me with 1,131 views and 89 people Tweeted this social media satire post about Google+ and time management!
31-08-11 BMW, Nestlé and other social media disasters!
- Social Media disasters
12-09-11 Welcome to commonred. Social media satire 27. If the disaster story about BMW’s social media experiences proved to be popular in August, the mixture of a new social media platform Commonred and social media satire edition 27 proved even more popular with over 1,240 StumbleUpon views and 136 Tweets.
21-09-11 Do you still doubt Klout? I’ve written a lot about Klout, here’s the good times, before the major algorithm issues came to a head.
05-10-11 Nokia: The tops on Empire Avenue This great success story brings even more views than the previous great disaster story!
10-10-11 Social media stress: Social media satire 32. With over 2,000 StumbleUpon views this post showed me the real value of StumbleUpon.
07-11-11 Klout Gate Kont’d: Krazy Klout and other cartoons.
30-11-11 Sainsbury’s social media winners Christmas 2011. The fact that the Sainsbury’s post had well over 2,500 views on StumbleUpon and 139 Tweets proved (once again) that happy and positive posts are popular posts.
Jamie Oliver at Sainsbury's
07-12-11 I gave Kred a K+ on Klout! The Kred post is both good news and a new social media platform and therefore the close to 2,000 StumbleUpon views and 126 Tweets is no major surprise.
12-12-11 Social influence and pre-Christmas satire! The pre-Christmas satire post was also popular which may suggest that Christmas posts are popular, we’ll see how well this is received!
As I anticipated back in late 2010, this year has been a great year for social media year, I’ve also learned and shared a lot of social media information, I’ve had over 1,300 comments on my blog and well over 65,000 viewers from all over the world.
I would like to thank everyone concerned, ALL my blog readers, supporters, friends, colleagues, Empire Avenue, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ friends, a sincere thanks to each and every one of you. Without you there would be nothing!
I wish you all peace and prosperity, mostly peace because prosperity without peace can be a burden. Enjoy Christmas and try and spend a little time away from social media just for a couple of days! (I’m going to try SO hard!!)
If you find this information interesting, please give it a Google + CLICK and also share it on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, or whichever social media platform you prefer.
If you want to get ahead with a social media call 01473 435308 or email peter@constructionmarketinguk.co.uk and we’ll explain just how cost effective a blog can be and exactly how to develop a quality social media campaign.
Select and connect with MarketingM8
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Hi Peter, I would love to hear more about your perspective on social media in the construction industry, they might not always favor the most Stumbles, likes and retweets – but it will help you shine as the thought leader in social media for the construction industry.
Marieke
Hi Marieke,
Sorry for the late response, but I’ve been away from my screens/office over the holidays, much to the surprise of my wife and children!
I hope you had a great Christmas!
I put a lot of effort into helping the construction sector in 2011 and 2012 will be very different, that’s for sure.
In the UK the sector is very, very traditional and very, very broke and scared of change and as dubious as ever about any kind of marketing. I have many stories about my attempts to educate the UK construction sector about social media, here’s a favorite:
I spend a long time explaining to one of the directors of a massive construction company the real benefits of a blog as opposed to the glossy magazine he was spending (and still is) about £50-£75,000 per annum on. (It was a great, excellent quality magazine, but a blog would be so, so much more current and would really promote the company and its website on Google and social media.)
They just don’t get it! They don’t want to get it.
I’m focusing on different things this year! I’ll keep you updated!
Great to hear from you, I wish you a very peaceful and prosperous 2012, all the very best Peter, aka MarketingM8
Congratulations on your well deserved success with your blog.
On reading your reply to Marieke above, the thought crossed my mind that if you become disenchanted with the construction industry, you could focus on more satirical humour. I certainly enjoyed your posts through the year.
Thanks for your helpful, educational and humorous writing and best wishes for a wildly successful 2012.
Hello Peter, great to hear from you and a very happy new year to you and your family.
I have become disenchanted with the UK construction sector and the thought of focusing on my SM satire appeals greatly but I need to earn some serious money this year as last year was slow.
Luckily I have a few ‘irons in the fire’ for 2012 and with 2 teenage kids I know I’ll need them! LOL!
Thanks for the continued support, it’s much appreciated!
I considered using Lulu to publish the cartoons online but never got around to it, maybe this year??
All the very best, Peter, aka MarketingM8