Social Media Explorer Offers Social Media Marketing Seminars And Workshops

Social Media Explorer was started by Jason Falls and Aaron Marshall to educate, train and consult marketing and advertising professional in utilizing social media as part of their business plan to reach a new audience through engagement.

Jason Falls did present a workshop in Dallas, TX last month where he continues to provide insightful information about social media utilization and measurement, several other professionals from different industries were invited to present their case studies as well. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it but I was able to follow the conversation on Twitter and it looked like everybody that was there really enjoyed what was discussed. At times, some of the guests tweeted information that I thought was very valuable to copy down and share on this blog post. I made a very long list of tips that I hope you will enjoy studying because in today’s ever changing media ecosystem, you really have to stay ahead and prepare for what’s coming next.

If you want to know more about Jason Falls’ experience in social media training, check out his latest book, No Bullshit Social Media.

Claim your place pages, make sure info is correct, upload photo, correct category & get reviews.
“No fluff social media measurement” is more marketing focused than pr-focused. Interesting thoughts for reaching out to the C-suite.
Social is about increasing reach and decreasing costs Align metrics with sales funnel – exposure, influence, engagement & action.
Continue to market through sales funnel, from awareness of brand to fan of brand.
Realize that people are now lazy consumers, you have to make it easy for them.

Focus on enhancing existing physical behaviors, rather than creating new broadcasting ones.
Goal: Increase reach, decrease cost. To do this, understand your path to conversion. Make it super easy to buy products!
The main idea of social media is to increase reach while decreasing cost.
Brands must become butlers and serve their customers in location-based marketing.
“Relevant leads prevent sucking at closing” don’t give them leads that aren’t ready to buy!
3 types of content: evergreen, decision making & promotional.
3 kinds of Location social users: Info-seekers, Special-seekers, Badge-seekers.
After looking up a local business on their smartphone, 61% of users called the business and 59% visited!

Social Media is not free. Think about your costs: content creation, measurement tools, graphics, consultants, etc.
Don’t measure social media in a silo – show how it supports the other marketing channels.
Recommends hoot suite and google analytics to measure social media… And it’s cheap!
Build your arks now, location based marketing is coming.
Set a value for your work if you plan on making a cent.
If you want quality video marketing content, you need the right equipment, tools, editing software.
Anyone who says social media is free doesn’t know squat about running an effective social media campaign.
Pinterest is beyond ‘trendy’ now.. its the ultimate content discovery engine.
Don’t promote on Flickr, use vid screen shots. Use it to link back to YouTube account .
Content planning, moderation, competitive intelligences.

If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, stop.
One of the speakers choose to use video for content marketing because he’s not a writer. What’s YOUR strength?
For keyword research on YouTube use their tool.
Focus Flickr content on SEO not engagement. Just say no to call to action. It will be ignored.
If u have video & no one sees it what’s the point video needs 2 b tagged with creating text content around it.
Use SEO, keywords around your videos so they work for you and people see it! Use Google keyword search tool for ideas.
Tag all videos and content in a way people will find it. Use the Google keywords tool.
Do a screen capture of your video, add that pic to Flickr, link back to YouTube – gain metrics and voila!
Video and photo content doesn’t need to be “pro quality” but nice equipment helps.
Challenges for “going local”: personal communication, brand teams aren’t local & popular networks aren’t built for it.
Video is awesome, but if you know you aren’t good at it, don’t do it. You are putting your personal brand on the line.
Never upload a video on Facebook… Always use YouTube and embed it on.
Just focus on YouTube; it controls 84% of video content.
Google doesn’t know what your video is about. Describe your video with keyword-rich text for Google optimization.
54% of US feel Internet users say they feel a responsibility to help friends/families find brands.
71% of ppl want to hear about brands before purchasing.
Women have incredible influence on buying decisions. Know your brand know your market.
86% of marketers are looking to modify, adapt & localize content.
Localized marketing = greater customer relevance.
Progress over perfection. Build your arks now. The location-based flood is coming.
Measure social media against all other communication channels – PR, TV, radio, email.
Don’t measure social media in a silo – show how it supports the other marketing channels.
Google “pod safe music” to find good royalty-free music for video.
If your looking for Royalty free music for your videos search for “Pod Safe Music” on Google.
3 kinds of Location social users: Info-seekers, Special-seekers, Badge-seekers.
content marketing is about publishing content for the local searcher #explore
A Google place page is a great place to start for social media/content marketing for small businesses.
most companies are doing a poor job of optimizing for local and mobile search
Not only do you have to manage customer reviews, but you have to manage employee reviews such as GlassDoor.
Small businesses can ask their consumers to “talk about their business”. A short review/video is good content!
49% of local consumers are more likely to use a business after reading a positive review online.
67% have taken action as a result of seeing technology or electronics related content on YouTube.
Don’t look at the value of a Facebook fan, but rather the value of a Facebook community!
This effort on this site, had this amount of value between these two points of time.
10% of the adult US population is on Twitter – remember that filter when you are listening/using Twitter data.
Use social media tools to take care of your customers and do it well.
“Social media will give you answers. It will make you think you have the right answers. But how do you check your work?”
75% of tweets to @AmericanAir are social customer service. Renewed effort to respond to all customer tweets.
It’s important to share your social media wins internally.
Twitter won’t kill polling. It’s killing journalism. Reporters now just quote tweets for their sources, not people.
if it was done just for the sole purpose of content creation, it wasn’t done to help your business.
Key to data analysis – ask “why was it created.
Listening will not kill asking. They will only make each other stronger.
How to make sense of social media data? Listen, ask, then calibrate, weighted based on where customers are.
“91% of people do not create content for people they don’t know.”
4 Steps for make sense of social media data: Listen, Ask, Calibrate, then listen smarter.
Most studies over represent social channels, e.g. Twitter, compared to audience. Have to calibrate.
Need to have % of messages from each platform, how many of your stakeholders are on each platform- weight accordingly.
First thing you question you should ask when you receive a report on Social Media: What percentage of data came from each platform?
Social media is a wonderful qualitative tool to give you questions – use it to listen, then ask.
Any data is usable, if you know where it came from and can put it in its proper box.
I’ve heard about Pinterest in brief mentions here & there… Remember, is it usable? Where did the data come from?
Admit your limitations & be transparent when responding to issues.
67.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.
If you listen the right way, you can accomplish your business goals much faster .
Go where your people are. Customers/ Potential Customers. Encompass your social space.
Email is still the top performing marketing channel.
Smart listening leads to faster business decisions.
Tips for monitoring & being proactive: monitor more than a vanity word, monitor where your people are.
Listening to how your users talk about your product can help you find marketing verbiage that resonates.
By listening to your audience, you can learn what words to use in your own marketing materials to move your audience.
Drive better business decisions by using words real people use & teaching the way people prefer.
Listen to your audience, you will find words to use in your brand marketing materials to move your audience.
Remember: you aren’t necessarily your audience.
Focus on social sharing first, and then the search results will come.
How are you using social media to monitor press opportunities for your clients?
Don’t use Popups to collect email addresses? Again, test that theory. Maybe popup further into the site? Use humor?
Business’ focus is on social media though email marketing is top performer.
It’s amazing how often social research tells you problems you already knew, just gives you evidence to fix them.
90% of Americans are within 3 feet of their phone 24 hours a day!
Twitter is a great resource for PR people to find journalists, but don’t rely on it for a pitch.
Modern day publishers/editors love PR folks because they’re great storytellers and can actually write.
We PR people wear multiple hats. Blogging, social media, traditional PR, more.
Tom Hayden believes QR codes will increase in popularity because “we love our cameras and hate to type on our phones.”
Text = Intimate Direct Conversation.
ComScore is showing the #1 thing we do with our phones is send SMS messages. Intimate conversation is what we love.
PR pitching on social media: great way to find journalists but don’t rely on Twitter or FB for pitch.
We expect to take any URL & have it work on our phones. Many of you are failing miserably because you don’t know what that means.
Scan, Text, or Click? QR code scan 30%, SMS Text 41%, URL 29% (1million clicks Sept-Dec 2011)
Think MOBILE behavior, NOT mobile technology!
Mobile has to be thought about as a behavior.
use social media to make that initial contact, but then develop a real relationship.
Mobile Behavior, not Mobile Technology. We are a mobile society. Our behavior is driving the technology not the other way around.
Don’t just rely on social media to pitch reporters. Make sure to send email with all info.
I agree with using offline media to drive online actions, but for the love don’t put QR codes on highway billboards.
Consumers on-the-go “look” less at social media (length of time) on handheld mobile devices. Use SM to pitch for the Blog – don’t only focus on Print/TV.
Consider SM as a tool to augment a relationship w/ a newsroom, not to pitch a story because it doesn’t work.
Almost half (46%) of consumers research an item on their smartphone before going to a store to buy it!
Mobile marketing…. look at the behavior of your customers. Again, be where they are!
Mobile devices help us investigate, understand, contextualize the physical media/messages around us.
mobile disrupts social media habits – people spend less time browsing on mobile (in and out).
Watch for the organic hash tags that are popping up and provide ideas related to it. Reporters are watching those as well.
Create savvy hashtags as a journalistic tool.
Our decisions aren’t based on influencers, but complex mesh networks of members with varying influence.
Consumers share experiences and make decisions together.
Newsrooms are drowning in story pitches today, keep it short and to the point- need to get message without fancy stuff.
If you’re going to use QR codes, you’re going to have to educate your audience; it’s your duty to help them & set expectations.
QR Codes are more effective when accompanied by instructions.
For TV, make your pitch direct & to the point. Fit it in 1 paragraph. You don’t even need to send a release.
80% should be links, 20% self-promotion on Twitter. Bottom line.
The pretty, fancy press release is great to look at, but it doesn’t further the message in a newsroom.
The mobile web is different, the audience is different, and their experience is important.
Mobile Friendly = Condensed Content, Limited Navigation, Quick Load Time.
Make mobile ready, test on multiple platforms.
Mobile Game Changer: The constant is not the app, it’s the mobile web and the in the moment impulse. Want to build a relationship with a reporter? Connect first on social media to initiate contact then follow-up with email.
Lead generation isn’t the most important thing in social media marketing, its just the end result.