We have another batter up for social media batting practice. Dave Delaney has recommended five tips for a pediatrician. The full scenario and his ideas are below. While we’re on the social media batting practice topic…Mitch Joel included a comment from me on his most recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation. He had some great additional info to include. Here’s the scenario that was pitched to Dave and his ideas follow…

Scenario: A pediatrician wants to know how she would be able to use social media to promote her practice. She’s currently spending money on local advertising in multiple areas and wants to know how social media marketing would work for her. She’s not viewed as the best pediatrician in her community but is widely recognized as one of the top five.

Dave’s ideas:

1. I would recommend that the pediatrician create a Google Adwords campaign targeted to her local zipcode(s).
2. I’d advise that she be sure she is included on Goggle in their business search results by adding herself to Google maps.
3. Depending on her available time and interest, I would suggest developing a blog and posting to it regularly. The blog would also offer all appropriate social bookmarks and tags.
4. She should also considering posting on local parenting forums always being sure to link back to her website.
5. Finally, she should consider sponsoring a quality parenting Internet radio show (AKA “podcast”) like Two Boobs and a Baby.

Thanks for the ideas Dave. I’ll include a similar real-life scenario I discussed a long time ago about a blogging dentist I know here in town.

This week’s social media batting practice involves a local, upscale music venue trying to figure out how social media marketing can work for it. This “pitch” was submitted by Steve, a MicroExplosion reader and our batter was Lynn Terry of ClickNewz.com. Lynn’s full list of recommendations and ideas follows the entire scenario below.

Scenario: How would a local entertainment venue (mainly musical arts) use social media to grow its fan base and increase single performance sales and season memberships? Assume the venue has a reputation of being a “black tie only” establishment, but in reality caters to music lovers from all walks of life. It recruits some of the most famous acts in classical, jazz, pops, cabaret and rock music and is known throughout the region. They sell out several shows a year for the more famous names, but want to be full for every weekend and weeknight show as well. What should they do?

Lynn’s ideas: They obviously want a social media campaign that will cover two objectives: gain local interest and also create a specific impression. In order to attract people from “all walks of life”, those people need to see others just like themselves.

I would recommend a photo/video campaign as the base for the online marketing strategy. They can be used to display the wide variety of entertainment available, as well as crowds & individuals (various types) that frequent the venue.

Use Flickr to host the photos and YouTube to host the videos. This serves two purposes: it saves on hosting space & bandwidth usage, and it also helps to create a broader reach. The goal is to “go wide” so that you are easily found online in a variety of places online. Not only will you be found at various social sites, but it will create more opportunity to be found in search engine results as well.

The primary web presence should be a blog, or a website + blog. Using a blog format will allow people to engage in discussions about specific shows they attended, subscribe to the calendar of upcoming events, and interact both with the business and other customers.

Elements to feature on the site/blog might include:

• About Page -written to give the impression desired
• Location/Directions -including photos and Google Map
• Entertainment Calendar -with RSS & Email subscription options
• Show Reviews -photos, videos & written reviews of recent shows
• Photo Gallery -invites visitors to submit photos as well
• Mailing List -notification for upcoming shows
• Testimonials -encourage visitors to send feedback & publish it

A great way to encourage visitors to sign up for the email list is to host a monthly giveaway. It might be a dinner, appetizer or door pass from a random drawing of subscribers. You can also use the drawing strategy to get customers to submit testimonials.

Tip: A prize of higher value could be offered for video testimonials, shot on scene.

Using the blog to feature reviews of recent shows will serve two purposes: it helps create the impression desired by featuring the variety of musical arts available, and it also allows you to optimize pages for keyword phrases such as: acts, names, music types, etc. Ranking well in the major search engines for the name of a well-known band can help you reach their fan base online.

Setting up a well-optimized blog and website, and optimizing your photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube, will allow locals and fans to find you. The next step in the marketing campaign is to find them.

Set up an account on MySpace, as their primary share in the social media market is with music. Use the name of the business for the account so that the URL is myspace.com/business. This makes it easy to find online, both by memory and by search. Use the calendar feature to display upcoming events. Search for bands and independent musicians that have played in your venue and add them to your friends list. Next, search your town and local area and send friend requests liberally.

When a band is scheduling a show, ask them if they have a MySpace account. Offer to feature them on your Top Friends space prior to the show and encourage them to send out an invite to their own friends list by posting a bulletin.

Set up an account at Twitter.com also, which is a micro-blogging service. Again, use your business name for the account. Publish updates daily that feature upcoming shows and artists, and link to the full write-up on your website. Use the search box in your Twitter account to find bands and locals just like you did with MySpace.

You now have presence on five different online properties - your own domain, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter. Done right, you can “own” 50% of the search results for phrases your ideal visitors are searching for online. Meaning if someone searches for XYZ Band on Google, you can easily show up in 5 out of the top 10 results.

Getting them to your site is the key. Interacting with them and engaging them in your content is what will turn them into loyal, repeat customers at your local venue.

—–

Lynn, thanks so much for your ideas and giving us a lot to think about. Anytime a business can own 50% of the search results for the keywords or phrases they want is a big win. That’s the beauty of what social media marketing can do. Interestingly enough, almost everything you suggested here costs nothing to get started but it takes time (sometimes significant time) to set up and maintain well. It just shows that in the economy of social media marketing time is the new money!

Also, thanks for the pitch Steve. All right…who’s got another pitch and who’s our next batter?

Last week I was in a meeting with people from a number of different organizations all discussing a common issue. I was the “social media” guy at the table with a few traditional marketers with various specialties along with non-marketing people working through an particular situation. During the course of the discussion I realized again how stark the difference is between the way I approach marketing and promotion compared to some more traditional marketers. I attribute this difference in thinking to people like Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, and Robert Scoble…all of whom have provided books and blog that have formed the way I approach the new technology for marketing purposes. I took some notes of my thoughts at the time and here’s what came out…

It’s not that television as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that newspapers as we’ve known them don’t matter. It’s just that they don’t matter as much as they used to.

It’s not that radio as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that marketing, advertising, public relations, and any other form of promotion as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that the way you’ve been marketing isn’t effective anymore. It’s just that it’s less effective today than it was yesterday and it will be increasingly less effective tomorrow, next week, and next year.

The lesson here isn’t that you have to make a total switch to social media marketing today. The lesson is that you need to be moving toward social media marketing and as you do, you can’t think about it the same way as the old way you did marketing.

Tomorrow morning from 9:30-11:00 CST will be the social media micro conference for marketing and communication professionals. There were five free spots available for non profits but those have been taken. There are still paid slots available. We’ll talk social media marketing strategy and tactics with some specific things I do when I’m working on a social media marketing campaign.

Up to 10 people from your organization can listen online or on the phone and an MP3 recording of the entire micro conference will be provided after the event is over.

If you’re ready to join us you’ll need to go here or if you want a little more information, check out the full description of the event.

John W. Ellis is our first batter to step to the plate for social media batting practice. He has some great insight on what he would do with the fly fisherman example. You can see the full post on John’s blog or read most of it below…

First up: How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business?

Here are 3 quick tips for this small business:

1. ‘Fly Fishing Tips’ Blog
   Creating an instructional blog is a great way to target specific customers. Don’t worry about revealing too much. You want to do just the opposite. This is a great opportunity to show your expertise in fly fishing.As an instructional blog, it has a clear focus. Many blogs are all over the place and have no consistency. Creating a clear, precise blog is a great way to target customers. Remember it’s not the quantity of visitors you want, it’s the quality. Five strong customers are better then 100 5-second visits.
2. Start the conversation on Twitter
   Start following friends, colleagues and competitors. Now of course, tweeting with friends will not expand the bank account. However, it does start the conversation. By discussing “fly fishing” the conversation expands beyond friends. After friends, begin following local lodging companies, restaurants, and local organizations. Don’t just follow. Join the conversation. Make friends. Make partnerships.Twitter creates followers, it creates buzz, and it eventually creates customers. It all begins with one sentence: “What are you doing?”
3. Flickr Photo Contest
   Ask for photographs of favorite fly-fishing spots. Then, give away free instructions to the best entries.After it’s over, be sure to give something to all entries. Even if it’s small, everyone loves winning.Flickr requires minimal time and investment. Plus, it has great photo sharing tools that allow you to integrate those photos into your blog and more importantly it allows “customers” to share those photos.

   Other tips, outside of Social Media:

   • Create packages with local lodging companies
   • Place brochures in state border Welcome Centers
   • Find ways to give away lessons. A small gesture will lead to great word of mouth
   • Email is a great way to talk with customers. Look for ways to collect email addresses.

John, thanks for the insight here. Very good thoughts. Ok, who’s ready to bat next?

I loved playing baseball as a kid and especially enjoyed batting practice. The great thing about batting practice was that it allowed you to work on your hitting outside of the pressure of the game. I’d like to invite you to some social media batting practice with me and here’s how it will work…

I believe there are no businesses or organizations that cannot benefit from social media marketing but for probably many reasons, social media marketing is still considered something that only quick, young, startup types of companies can utilize.

Social media batting practice will be our way to show that social media marketing can, in fact, work for any type of business or organization and this is where we’ll share those ideas. My hope is that this will be a way to stretch those of us interested in social media marketing (without the pressure of the pitch from a prospective client) and hopefully prove its worth to some doubters or skeptics. So…we need pitchers and batters (and those who want to do both.)

Pitchers will throw out an idea of a type of business or organization we might not think could or would use social media and it’s up to a batter to give some specific ideas of how that business would implement social media marketing. The batter can think about it like being temporarily hired as a social media marketer for the business or work. The only request for the “pitches” here is that they be real or at least plausible. For instance, a pitcher might say, “how would a gunsmith use social media? Or maybe, “how would a dog grooming store use social media marketing?” That’s more the spirit we’re going for here…businesses that people might think could benefit from social media marketing.

If you want to be a pitcher or batter just let me know in the comments or shoot me an email (Bill@MicroExplosion.com) All pitchers and batters will get credit and links to their respective blogs or websites. The pitchers really have the easy job here…just throw out a type of business and give some parameters so the batter can give a good answer. The batters are the ones who have to come up with a couple of things they could do and give some specifics. It’s not enough to say, “Start a Facebook group , create a blog, and post some video to YouTube. There, have a nice day.” That won’t cut it. You need to be more specific. This post might help if you need it.

Who knows how long we’ll play. Maybe through the summer. Let’s see how it goes. So, who’s ready for some batting practice? Here’s a pitch if someone wants to be the batter (email me if you do and I’ll have a full post with your response):

How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business? Assume the guide works a job during the week but would love to be a fly fishing guide full time if possible. He knows the best spots for good fishing in the region and is a great instructor as well. He’s only booked one weekend a month right now, but wants to be full every weekend. What should he do?

By the way…I totally made that up but that’s the kind of information a pitcher will need to provide for a batter.

I’m going to admit this up front: I have a few issues when it comes to advertising agencies and marketing firms. I don’t think they’re all bad, but I believe there are a lot of new options (which are better for the client) for people who need the same types of services that ad agencies and marketing firms offer.

For instance, you can find really good graphic design, web design, or web development services from a multitude of companies that have no more than two people in the company. More than likely, if you go with one of those you’ll pay about half of what the agency will charge you because you’re not covering a large overhead. I once worked for a company whose annual rent was more than what most of the people who worked there made in a year. It wasn’t that the work was that much better or that the technology was that much more expensive or that the staff was that much more talented. It was just that the company had a lot of overhead to cover and that was passed along to the clients. Again, not all the larger places are bad, but the best big ones are specialists, not generalists.

Here are three things to think about that may lead you to fire your current marketing firm or advertising agency:

If your agency doesn’t communicate with you, fire them. If you don’t recall the last time you heard from them, how are they supposed to know what your needs are? Even worse, I know of a company today that has an agency on retainer but doesn’t use their services. Their agency never contacts them and doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on with them, but they keep on collecting the fees every month. I think it’s dumb for the company to keep paying the retainer and very bad business for the agency to keep collecting without doing a thing for their client.

If your agency isn’t a learning organization, fire them. The world of marketing is changing too fast these days. If they’re not keeping up then they’re selling you outdated (and less useful) services. Many agencies did something well many years ago and are still trying to sell those same services. A lot of them have come to the cold realization that the old way doesn’t work anymore and are scrambling to figure out what to do next. I can only imagine how confused their clients are.

If your agency hasn’t given you a new idea in the last six months, fire them. This goes along with the learning organization point above but takes it a step further by actually expecting the agency to be leading in some way. It’s not enough to be learning, you have to be applying the new learning as well. If your agency is still making the same recommendations you got from them a year ago, they’re probably not learning and they’re certainly not leading.

Over the weekend I visited the local Home Depot to pick up a few things. As I pulled into the parking lot I passed the “garden center” and noticed rows and rows of flowers just waiting to be purchased and planted in the front yards of homes all around the community. You would think that’s a good thing, right? Not me. I was mad. Here’s why…

Home Depot is pulling out all the stops to sell people the flowers they need for their yards. That’s fine except for one little thing…they’re selling the flowers a full month before they’re really supposed to be planted. Most folks who plant flowers in this area recommend you wait until after May 15. That’s an entire month from now, but Home Depot is more than willing to sell you flowers a month early and is doing a great job of creating a really attractive display to convince that it’s just fine to get them now. You should see the spread of flowers they have out there. It’s beautiful. It looks like exactly what I would love to have. It’s also way too early to buy them. The likelihood they’ll die between now and next month is pretty good. Tonight it’s going to get down to almost freezing…so case in point!

Here’s why I’m talking about this. Some marketing firms and ad agencies will sell you flowers a month early. They’ll be happy to provide something you want without telling you how and when to use it. It may be good for business, but it’s bad for customers. I understand there’s a level of responsibility on the part of consumers, but when you expect someone to know more about a topic than you do, you also put some trust in their hands. That’s why I’m appalled that Home Depot is selling flowers a month early as if to say, “Go ahead, get you flowers early. The smart people won’t be doing that, but you ignorant folks can give us your cash now.” I’m equally appalled at marketers who sell services to people when they don’t need them.

The bottom line is this: just because it’s available doesn’t mean it’s the right time. Just because they’ll sell it to you doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Just because you bought it doesn’t mean you should use it. That would just be doubling the number of wrong things you’re doing.

All bloggers want more traffic to their site. It doesn’t matter if it’s a professional blog or some random musings from your life, you want more traffic if you publish a public blog. Sure, you know about blogrolls and link exchanges, but do you ever link specifically to posts to bring some traffic to you blog? You can. Here’s how.

Linking to posts (called trackbacks or pingbacks depending on what your blog tool calls them) is a way to show that you wrote a blog post specifically talking about a post on another blog. That referring link then shows up on the original blog either under the trackback area or in the comments. That referring link can then send people to your blog to see what you had to say on the topic.

For instance, if I wrote a post about how Seth Godin gives a good explanation on the types of people who use Firefox rather than Explorer, I would link to it as I’ve done here and grab the trackback link at the end of his post. That trackback link can then be inserted into a special trackback field within Wordpress (some blog tools can do this automatically…just check how your blog platform deals with these or try this). Then my post referring to Seth’s post would show up on his blog.

Wordpress is especially generous to pingbacks. If you were to link to this post for instance (the permanent link) it would show up in the comments. Wordpress works like this for all users unless the blog’s author has specifically turned the feature off.

The strategy here is that you add value to the conversation and get to bring people over to your blog to see what you’ve said. It’s better than a comment because it shows you took some time to really respond to the blog post. People who read the comments will be more likely to click over to see what you said because they also recognize that you took the time to write it.

One final thought here…don’t be a jerk. Don’t trackback unless you have something valuable to add. There is such a thing as spam trackbacks and spam pingbacks and you don’t want to be one of those. Just add something to the conversation and you’ll be fine.

I admit that I’m not an SEO guy and and don’t want to be. There are lots of specialists who know the ins and outs of how to get the most Google juice out of your website or blog and it’s worth knowing where to go for that kind of help.

Eric Holter and the team at Newfangled Web Factory, located in the shadow of the University of North Carolina, (no kidding…they’re right down the road from the campus) have put together a two part series on search engine optimization. The video below is the first of two they’ve done to help people understand how to do search engine optimization better. You can read more about Newfangled’s two-part series on SEO here (part 1) and here (part 2).

How to do SEO