Social Media Marketing - The ZEN method

Zen of Social Media Marketing

 Many people believe that since they already know how to use Facebook for their personal profiles they are perfectly capable of using Social Media in their business. And I guess that is true to a point. There isn’t anything ‘hard’ about using social media. But ‘using’ and ‘successfully using’ social media to grow a business are two very different things.

The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Kabani is a perfect tool to make sure that you're using social media successfully for your business.

When it comes to ‘successfully using’ social media, you need to understand more than just how to post or to like. You have to understand the selling process, how it works traditionally and how social media is different than traditional advertising practices. To cross the social media line with traditional marketing can be more damaging than not marketing at all.

With Friends Like These

photo credit: daniel_iversen via photopin cc

Today's business world is tough and awfully competitive. So when it comes to Facebook we have a perfect opportunity to spy on our rival businesses and to flat out steal their posts. We can use their posts against them, see how they are running their social media campaigns and find out what they are up to! This is prefect! It's just like finding the other team's play book the night before the big game.

There is even a great way to protect yourself from others seeing what you're up to on Facebook. As Buzz Bishop of cyberbuzz points out, if you create a fake page you can follow all your competitors without them seeing that you are following them.

And I guess in some ways I can see the point. Because of Facebook's referral ads, there is a chance that suddenly there will be a post on someone's wall saying that your page Likes your competition's page. Facebook has basically advertised your competition directly to your fans.

And that is just horrible!

Except that it really isn't.

Why I LIKE to see SHARES

In a world dominated by likes it’s easy to get caught up on a high like count instead of focusing on the more important aspects of Social Media.

Jumping through hoops

Bob and Doug McKenzie rocking Touques
Photo from Wikipedia, owned by MGM

I’ve lived in Canada for 5 years now and I’ve embraced the culture. I use specific measurements like ‘wack’ or ‘Skiff’ (Wack being lots and Skiff being just a little – often used when talking about the amount of snow on the ground.), I have to have my Timmy’s coffee in the mornings and in the winter I wear a Touque. A touque, for those who don’t know, is a knit cap and referred to as a beanie in the states. It can sometimes have ear flaps or a pom-pom on top of it.

Now, I will admit that a touque is a good idea when it’s -35 degrees outside, but it’s more than just a knit hat. It’s a fashion statement and a true piece of Canadian culture. So not only have I embraced it, but I’ve also decided to have fun with it.

Mars Fever - 7 Minutes of Terror

The challenges accepted and conquered that allowed Curiosity to land on Mars.

This is a fantastic piece of advertising. It shows the challenges that this team had to get past in order to land Curiosity on Mars. More importantly - it makes the viewer want to see if it works. This is a worst case scenario. This can't possibly work, but we're trying it anyways.

I was too young to remember it originally, but it's like Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes back:

Thinking outside the box

I was shown this video by a friend. Take a peak.. (naw, it's okay.. I'll wait.. Just don't forget the rest of the blog post! )


Now it's out of context because I'm sure there was a listing website and such, but what you've just watched is a walk-through video for a home that was for sale in Malibu, CA.

Go ahead and watch it again. I'll wait.

Social Media is the New Public Relations

Social Media IS Public Relations.

Established media has always been the ‘gate keepers’ of information. Ten years ago if you wanted to contact a large group of people you had no choice but to go through television, newspapers and radio. Today’s technology allows businesses to bypass those ‘gate keepers’ and directly deliver their message to their audience. Established media still plays an important role in a public relations strategy, but that role is shrinking and will continue to shrink as individuals have more power in this age of global communications.

This is a fantastic time for businesses to reach out and connect with their customers and potential customers. By building relationships through social media, a business can help recruit and build a loyal customer before that customer has even had a chance to purchase the product or service.

Businesses can also post news or respond to crises in a much more personal and time sensitive way than ever before. Because a business has a direct line to their client base they are able to instantly respond to any problems that they may be facing.

Of course this does lead to complications as well. Because we’re no longer in a ‘push’ media world, where a business can send out a message without thought to the response, and are now have an ‘exchange’ media, where the public has the ability to respond directly to a business, good public relations strategies are more important than ever. The message that goes out MUST be well thought out and very transparent.

Another concern is that because the audiences have the ability to directly contact the company, on a public platform, we must be more aware of the answers we provide. Whereas before we could simply ignore a complaint because the only person who knew about it was the person who wrote it, we now must realize that a single negative comment posted on a social media site has the potential to be seen by our entire fan base.

KLM is a good example. When they had delays due to a volcano they used social media to work directly with their customers through their Facebook page. If you visited KLM’s Facebook during that time you would find hundreds of people complaining or trying to reschedule flights. While in the end it seemed that most of the people were understanding and did get the help they needed, because it was completely public many people may have visited the KLM page and gotten the wrong idea. Suddenly all of KLM’s ‘dirty laundry’ was being aired over a public and very visible channel.

I think that traditionally Public Relations has been a department that focused on the big picture. Press Releases and crisis management, but because the reach of social media public relations professionals have to be more aware of the general status that their company is held in and adapt to individual changes in a much more fluid manner. It’s not about sending out the big press releases and talking to a few important news makers. When anyone and everyone has a voice, businesses must make sure that they continue to respond to the individuals and individual groups.

Public Relations is more important than ever before.