What’s your social media strategy for 2012? Or will you just be doing what you did in 2011?

If last year wasn’t quite as successful as you’d hoped it would be, what went wrong and how will you change it in 2012?

Social media marketing is still marketing

Peter Drucker once said that communication adds value and of course he was absolutely right, but not all communication adds value, so be very selective in 2012 and don’t waste your valuable time. Yes, social media is fun and yes, it can prove to be hugely beneficial to many companies, but it eats time if not managed correctly.

Be consistent with social media

You may look back at your 2011 social media performance and realise that you spent too much time online building your social media reputation and building relationships and not enough time earning money; making digital friends is fun, but it doesn’t pay much. If you want a friend, buy a dog!

Blog standards continue to get higher, don't publish the predictable in 2012!

A good quality blog is a must for most businesses as it keeps the company in the headlines and provides great links to the traditional static website, every business should have something new to talk about and if they haven’t, they really do need a new marketing manager. (Call 01473 435308) Traditional websites can serve their purpose, but they generally don’t generate much traffic unless they’re connected to social media, this is why blogs are so effective and popular. Blogs should always be used in conjunction with other social media platforms because writing a good post is only 60-70% of the job, a blog post without an audience is just pictures and words!

If you want to try social media you have to be brave!

Like any form of marketing, social media is NOT a job that is ever completed; you may complete a particular social media campaign, but the overall process is organic and continuous, if you’re not sure and you don’t feel you can give social media 100%, just don’t bother!

However, if you do want social media success, start from the beginning and enjoy the building process, watch your social media presence grow and see the connectivity working and showing results. Be quick to respond to blog comments positive and negative, be proud of engagement at all levels and prolong that engagement; appreciate customers that take the initiative and reward them for their efforts; encourage your social media mavens, they’ll work hard for you and they’ll spread your corporate message.

Do not get addicted to social media!

Use ONLY what will help you in 2012 and if you have a social media manager or team, make 100% sure they are focused; don’t worry too much about Kred, PeerIndex and Klout if you are new to social media, get the important jobs done first!

Follow your blog traffic with Get Clicky, Alexa and Google analytics and see how you improve, use Google+ and maybe Facebook to help blog traffic, but more importantly use StumbleUpon and Twitter and consider platforms like BizSugar and Blokube too!

Don't be scared of social media!!!

Do NOT be scared of social media, but do NOT give hard earned cash to ‘gurus’ and so-called experts unless you are 100% sure they can do exactly what they claim they can do! During 2011 I came across a number of social media charlatans and these band wagon jumpers give social media a bad name. I guarantee that social media will NOT show results over night, that social media may not help your particular company at all and that the ROI may not be good for a small business like yours! I also guarantee that social media is NOT a 1 size fits all and that not everyone will necessarily benefit from using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!

Ask your guru why you will benefit from a particular strategy? Ask to see previous results and consider that it may be easier to buy a few social media books and teach yourself, basically, it needn’t cost a lot of money! I also guarantee that it will take time and commitment and if you don’t feel confident, don’t bother or instead employ a young and very enthusiastic social media trainee and develop your strategy together, this may teach you more about your company and your current marketing than you could ever have hoped for.

Protect your investment

If we consider that a corporate blog is 100% required whatever you do, whatever sector you are in, then please ensure you protect it! I nearly gave up social media, blogging and everything digital after being hacked back in 2011, it was a major nightmare and I don’t recommend it to any one.

Build a good social presence, one step at a time and monitor the results; don’t try and do everything at once, it’s too difficult and unnecessary and most importantly, be patient! Remember, random acts of social media marketing are 100% guaranteed NOT to work.

Advertising on blogs is a controversial subject and maybe I could have improved my income last year if I had advertised? But by how much? If you’re a company, you’ll probably only want to advertise your own services and products, but don’t discount the benefits of collaboration with someone suitable, but they must be suitable and should relate to your business one way or another. I’m still waiting for a company to approach me and offer me a reasonable sponsorship deal as opposed to having a ton of little adverts that will cheapen my brand!

Let me know what you’re up to in 2012 and tell me what lessons you’ve learned from 2011!

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

www.marketingm8.co.uk

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.

11-04-11 Social Media developments: Buffer your Tweets, get organised, save time and protect your Klout score!! 

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!  

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

www.marketingm8.co.uk

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Social media Christmas satire 2011, ho ho ho!

What a year for social media! But for many people it’s their very first real social media Christmas.

A lot has changed this year, but how do we sum it all up for the ones who might have missed the social media boat? Is there still time to be a social media early adopter?

In some sectors, yes and even if you’re not an early adopter, just as in traditional marketing and advertising, you can still be better than your direct competition. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine! Just use a little imagination, consider all the options and ask for professional help if you require it (call me!).

Don't be scared of social media

Don’t be scared of change, look hard and long at what your competitors are doing with social media and decide if you can benefit from a similar campaign. Take Sainsbury’s as a prime example, they’re great at social media and their competitors are now trying very hard to catch up with them. Being an early adopter pays dividends, but you need to be brave and forward thinking, traditionalism doesn’t win many prizes in the 21st century!

Look at how social media has changed the way we live this Christmas!

A new Christmas tradition, social media!

Maybe we won’t all be jumping online straight after lunch this Christmas, but I bet a few people will! I bet a few people will be choosing the Christmas carols via YouTube videos too and Christmas Tweets will probably replace the traditional Christmas cards for many people! Why not Tweet a nice festive family photo or greeting this social media Christmas? Or maybe you’d prefer to Tweet a Christmas carol? If you’re really smart, you’ll be Tweeting corporate Christmas carols and greetings during this social media Christmas season! It’s got to be cheaper than sending all those cards with envelopes and stamps to lick, right? And think of all the trees you’ll be saving!

A social media Christmas celebration

If you haven’t made the best of social media this year, but you want to get started in 2012, just relax and enjoy the festive season, don’t panic!

However, if you really do want to get started, please make a real commitment, don’t half do social media, don’t give it a couple of weeks and decide it’s not worth it! You may as well just keep wasting money on traditional marketing and advertising. Social media takes time, resources and effort, but it will pay off if you do it correctly. Start with completing your LinkedIn profile 100% and then add a blog with connections to your website and any other social media platforms you may have. (Need help? Call me!)

Don’t make a song and dance about social media, it’s as easy as you make it and don’t try to do everything at once!

Traditional methods continue to decline

We all know that social media is taking a large amount of market share from traditional marketing and advertising, it’s obvious, it’s all around us and it’s happening daily. We know that people trust adverts 80% less than peer recommendations, so we don’t need to be a social media genius to see where things are going, permission marketing is the way ahead and the way of the future.

Everyone, especially Generation Y, uses mobile devices one way or another and where do they take you? Online, right? We can’t carry TV’s around and people are getting used to hand held entertainment, it’s personal, it’s current and it’s vast!

The 21st century has turned its back on intrusive advertising in every possible way and we can quickly and easily see our peer recommendations on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Digg, Posterous, Tumbler, Subjot, Quora, Empire Avenue, etc… or by a quick text. Not so very long ago we had to make a telephone call and hope our peers were available for a consultation.

Social media obesity

However much we love and adore being online and involved with social media, we must try and balance our lives (Says super hypocrite MarketingM8), we mustn’t get too obsessed about every Tweet or comment that concerns us; we’re bound to miss things occasionally, but we shouldn’t get too emotional about it.  For corporations with deeper pockets we can monitor every single word and every single social media platform 24/7/365, for comments good, bad and indifferent, but everyone else, except for politicians, should just relax and enjoy the benefits of 21st century communication.

Happy Christmas everyone! May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous new year for you and if you need professional social media help, call me!

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

www.marketingm8.co.uk

Kred: Keeping it real with Kred! (By reading 10,000 Tweets per second!)

You must have heard of Kred by now and you might well be fed up with hearing about Klout, but however you feel about influence measurement and whether you believe it’s even possible or not, you can’t hide from the fact that it must be of some importance or we wouldn’t all be talking about it.

I interviewed Kred and People Browsr CEO Andrew Grill and immediately liked him for his typical down to earth Aussie style, his honesty and his approachable attitude. However, I’m still reading about Kred, I’m still researching it and I DO like what I see, but…

Aye aye Captain or hello sailor?

I have see some odd choices in my Klout topics over the years, in fact after writing about the London “social media” riots and how Blackberry and social media were blamed, I suddenly became an authority on Boris Johnson. Why? Because I Tweeted his PR lady telling her that Boris was wrong to blame the UK’s social/political problems on Tweeting, texting via Blackberry and using Facebook! This didn’t really make me an expert on Boris, but I did Tweet about him, but I’m certainly NOT a sailor!

I’m confident that I’ve never Tweeted about sailing and I’ve certainly never RT’d a sailing Tweet, I promise you! So imagine my dismay at the above community that I am qualified to be in as far as Kred’s concerned. (Please explain Kred people!)

Coffee any one??

OK, I admit we did grow coffee in the Philippines, in the garden, but I don’t Tweet about it, so how come I’m in the coffee lovers community? I do have a Twitter buddy, someone from Empire Avenue who is a BIG coffee lover. Is this what puts me into this community Kred? I’d love to know.

My most talked about subjects as far as I’m concerned are social media, marketing and blogging and yet strangely, I’m not even in the blogging community. Why is this and what do I have to do to change it? I guess I need to check Kred out more, but I’m just asking questions that I’m sure others will ask. I am NOT complaining as I liked Andrew Grill’s honesty, I thought it was great that he still considers himself a blogger and I do believe he and Kred are really trying to do the right thing here.

MarketingM8's communities

I do believe that Kred can and will get it right, a lot of people from all corners of the social media community are supporting Kred and I’ve had a lot of people Tweeting me asking me if I could either get them invited into Kred quicker or advise them on the best way to join. The demand is there for sure and all Kred has to do is continue to get it right, but we must not forget that these are very early days for Kred.

Kred's trying to do it right

Kred actually says that influence is impossible to measure, but they are trying and I think they’ll gain a great following because any social media platform is only as good as the people behind it and these people seem very genuine and determined to get it right!

I really liked the Kred introductory video with Robert Dempsey when Andrew Grill talked about the 50+ grey haired marketing directors and their attitude towards social media. Hey, that’s me Andrew and unlike most of my peers, I really do believe in social media and I do like the way it’s broken down the barriers as far as marketing is concerned.

I also think that all businesses need guides for potential customers, especially new and developing sectors like social media; we’ve all seen the charlatans dipping their hands into the public’s pocket at social media seminars. Scores such as Kred, Klout and PeerIndex do offer the social media novices a guide and therefore a degree of protection.

I’ve met social media ‘guru’s’ with no experience and practically no Klout score offering Social Media professional guidance and in one bizarre case the guy didn’t even know what Klout or Empire Avenue were and he ran away from me! In this instance Klout was very much an asset and it was very easy for me to determine via my Twitter feed that the guy was potentially a rogue! People need guides in business and that’s what Kred are providing.

People Browser people!

As I said earlier, any social media platform, whatever it’s trying to achieve, is only as good as the people behind it and I genuinely like the people at Kred and I think they’ll do a great job, but join them yourself now and let me know what you think!

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

www.marketingm8.co.uk

Social influence and pre-Christmas satire!

Earlier this week coming back to Ipswich from London on the train, not only was I amazed at the Olympics site in London and the development of Stratford, but also by the fact that it seemed like 60% of the people on the cold, noisy, crowded, very expensive train were online via mobile devices! 60% is a lot of activity!

It’s a little ironic that I have to leave the office and step into the ‘real world’ to appreciate just how digitally inclined the whole population has become. When people talk about mobile being the way of the future, and I’ve said it myself, they are so right! If you don’t fully appreciate the amount of influence online advertising now has, think again!

Talking of influence, what’s all this talk about social influence and can we really measure it?

How influential are you?

Last weekend some friends and I had a great Twitter discussion focused mainly on Kred, Klout and social influence and I’m still undecided. Can social influence be measured? I think it can, but not very accurately, which may mean that it can’t really!

However, people do need a guide as to the professional performance of others and not just in social media. It doesn’t hurt to have an idea of an individuals social media competency if you intend to employ him or her and it would be a long process to go through all their social media platforms. Easier to look up a number and then decide whether to do any further research based on whatever that number may suggest.

You are what you do!

If you are looking for a social media manager you would probably like to see how the individual is connected, how long they’ve been connected, what experience they have and how effectively they engage. To me response has to be a given, because engagement is very different to broadcasting and if you Tweet or post comments on Facebook or Google+ or on a blog and no one reads the content or responds, it’s NOT engagement. That’s broadcasting or advertising, right?

The development of social media has taken us away from the biggest advertiser gaining the most business, that’s just old school and dull. People want engagement, they want to be listened to and answered professionally, they want to be respected as consumers deserve to be because they work hard for their money. If people make buying decisions in the 21st century they want to be sure they’re the right decisions, cognitive dissonance or buyers remorse is hopefully a thing of the past.

The latest changes, do you like them?

This year continues to see major changes in the social media scene and just last week StumbleUpon and YouTube underwent some major changes. Do you like the new StumbleUpon logo? I’m not convinced, I liked the old one! The new colour reminds me too much of another social media platform.

New look StumbleUpon

Do you like the new look YouTube? I’m not too sure, it seems to tell you less about an individual channel at 1st glance, maybe they’re just looking to encourage more engagement?

What about social media 2012?

A lot of companies have realised that social media is no longer just a phase or a fad, as I’ve said before the F-word is rarely used with regards to social media nowadays. It’s a given that to some extent or another both B2C and B2B can help their marketing with at least a little social media connectivity.

Why print and distribute brochures, magazines and pamphlets when publishing quality blog posts are cheaper, more current, more effective and stay on Google as a quality point of reference rather than end up in the recycling bin?

But where will the 2011 social media winners head for in 2012? They conquered Twitter, Facebook and possibly YouTube in 2011, but where will they go next?

My guess is Google+ for a start, then StumbleUpon and maybe even Triberr. Distribution of blog content is crucial and based on that theory maybe platforms like Twylah and Scoopit will see more traffic too. As I said back in early 2011, a blog post without an audience is just pictures and words.

Will Tumblr continue this year’s success and keep taking share from WordPress or will Posterous make a stand or WordPress get easier to use?

Company’s will all need to maintain quality blogs to appeal to audiences, Facebook and Google+ comments and links will only be the route to content and company’s will not get away with mediocre efforts.

Oh to be a blogger!

To me, a quality 100% complete LinkedIn profile and a corporate blog (websites don’t count!) are the essential foundation of any social media campaign and I believe this year we’ll see some major changes on LinkedIn and some serious corporate moves towards quality blogs and quality blogging.

Just as having a website was acceptable 15-20 years ago regardless of it’s content, just having a blog will no longer suffice in 2012. Consumers now know that a blog or a website represents a company in every respect and that if a company wants to attract quality, loyal customers it needs to create and maintain the kind of appeal the customer is demanding.

It’s going to be a very busy year ahead! If you need help call us!

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

www.marketingm8.co.uk