1. Be authentic.

It’s kind of obvious… I know. But, are you being authentic with your audience? Your topic should be something that you’re well versed in. For instance, parenting advice is best given out by other parents. Not a parent? It wouldn’t be authentic for you to lead your readers to think that you have been there and done that. Stick to what you know and you’ll always be authentic in discussing it.

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Is your organization ready to scale social media efforts? Are the budgets allocated, C-Level Suite is ready to embrace the ‘client centric’ strategy and you are ready to plunge into the world of Social Media?

Well, if this sounds to good to be true, many organizations are doing just that in 2011 – they are getting ready to scale their social media efforts. And when they do, they will need the help of ‘the few, the proud, and the very capable’ Social Media Directors.

Explore how you can find one, hire one and get your organization ready for the Social Media plunge of 2011!

1. SM Bookmark 1: Don’t forget that Successful Social Media campaign is still about LINKS – and that means that people will link to you based on relevant content and topics that you will post
2. SM Bookmark 2: Also don’t forget that CONTENT is the next part of the successful Social Media effort – the more you and others write about a topic or a promotion, the better the results will be overall
3. SEO Bookmark 1: Successful SEO campaigns and efforts were ALWAYS about CONTENT RELEVANCY – the more relevant your content is the better are chances that people will find you in their search efforts
4. SEO Bookmark 2: In SEO terms, if people are LINKING to you, they are thinking about you and they are talking about you – give them enough reasons to do so more often
   

Typically, when people start talking about you or your products (B2B or B2C), they begin to ‘buzz’ and that buzz gets amplified through Social Media channels. If your infrastructure is robust and scalable enough, that buzz will be amplified through MANY SM channels (social profiles, LIKE buttons on blog posts, apps, social media integration points, etc.). And if the topic happens to be ‘viral’, the effect will be much more scalable through social media than traditional link building, which would typically require a pitch to each website publisher (unless you are JCPenney ).

By Marina Shapiro

‘Out with the old, and in with the new.’  The industry of Social Media Marketing is maturing and we are predicting a new dawn for the Social Media revolution. So, what will it mean to be ‘social’ in 2011?  What aspects of Social Media will be integral to the way businesses develop and grow?  How will this impact the technology? Who will ‘win’ at Social Media this year? We’ve compiled top 11 predictions for the world of ‘social’ in 2011.

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February 9th, 2010. By Alex Romanovich. Is Social Media just another channel? Yes, it may be, but it is so much more than that. Social Media is forcing corporations (brands) to look at how they engage with their clients, how they use information, and how they respond to events. It is forcing companies to treat Social Media as part of their overall value chain. For the B2Bsector, marketing opportunities have always existed throughout the value chain – from logistics to marketing and sales. With the introduction of more pronounced and readily accepted Social Media Marketing techniques into the consumer marketing space, the opportunities for business to generate leads, improve customer service, and raise brand awareness in the B2B arena are becoming more pronounced. The most recent eMarketer polls, as well as B2B Magazine’s report titled “2010 Outlook”, indicate that Social Media Marketing (SMM) will become increasingly important to B2B marketers. Note: This post continues at The Social CMO blog. Please click here.

By Alex Romanovich October 13th, 2009 Alex Romanovich is the Founder and CMO of Social2B ===== According to ENGAGEMENTdb’s recent “Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands” report on how deeply global brands are engaged in Social Marketing, big financial companies are not as much socially engaged as media, retail or technology companies of the same ranking. However, it does not mean that a financial brand cannot “socialize” itself. On the contrary, it shows that the financial services industry, often too closed, hindered by government regulations and by somewhat “conservative culture”, is getting more and more open to “socialization”. According to the same ENGAGEMENTdb’s report, even such giant conglomerates as Visa, ING, American Express, UBS, JP Morgan are, if not very active, are still quite responsive to the today’s demand of being social. Being most commonly engaged in six or fewer social channels, and having below-average engagement scores (as estimated by ENGAGEMENTdb), they have already started integrating social media into their marketing and customer communication strategy. (more…)