Tip #16 – Quickie Tip – Throw Myths on Traditional PR Out the Window

This is the one tip that you cannot ignore if you want success in social media.

Throw privacy, control, and PR rules out the window, because corporate PR strategies and rules are all about giving the public a certain canned message, whereas blogging and social media is all about being transparent and authentic. And you can still have control over what message gets across, but if you’re focusing on privacy and closure and all that, it’s the antithesis of social media. And it’s exactly what will not work in getting you tons of fans, and results.

Social Media Loves Transparency

So the Quickie tip is “Throw Myths  on Traditional PR Out the Window” and go back to Tip # 1 which is  engagement, engagement, engagement with your audience.

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Tip #15, is make sure you have Your Own Blog with Your Own Opt-in Form that You Own.

You can also put 5 asterisks on this because this is such a core guiding principle in everything you do in all of the above 14 tips that I just shared with you on social media success.

And that is, to have an opt in form on all of your social network channels. So every channel that you create, you always get a place where you can put a link for your website or a page on the web.  And that page should be your home page on your blog that has an opt in. Or a specific page that just has your video that says, and you know it could be specific to each channel.

You can have that. You can be collaborative with it. Or it can be very simple way to just drive them all to one page where it says, “Hey, if you like my posts or strategies or videos or whatever it is you offer, you can stay in touch with me by just signing up below (or wherever you decide to put on your opt in box).  And then tell them to opt in to stay in touch with you. And then tell them what they’re going to get. Make it something special and also tell them the things they’re going to get when you communicate on your blog.

So the key to everything you do in social media is never…because these social media channels are not owned by you. Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Pinterest…All of these things that I mentioned..YouTube…They’re not owned by you. You have no control over them.

And I’ve been doing this business in social media for 10 years, and when I went to revise my first book that I wrote on Twitter, there were companies and links that were in existence then that people signed up for. They were very popular that were then bought out, and then the person that bought them out changed some of the rules.  Some of them did away with them and eliminated the channel.

You know, a lot of people joke around about MySpace, and MySpace is so extremely relevant for two tribes: 1) musicians.  Justin Timberlake, or otherwise known as JT, just recently bought MySpace. So we’re going to see a surge in interest and a lot of publicity for MySpace.  And it was specifically created for musicians.  It gave them a channel to share their music without having to go through the professional publishing world and be approved to share their music with the world.

Instead, they let people vote them up or vote them down.  Tila Tequila wound up becoming one of the most famous MySpace musicians, got a million followers, got her own TV show, and obviously had an album, and she got her music out. And a number of other musicians have the same kind of success story.

Others use it just as a way to gather their tribe.  So that’s the number one place for musicians.  All musicians must have a MySpace channel.

MySpace Usage in Social Media Success Secrets

You might not need a MySpace channel if you’re a doctor or someone who’s not really tapping into that target market.  But maybe it is.

Because the second tribe of people that love MySpace is the Spanish market.  Not just people in Spain, but people in America who are Spanish.  For whatever reason, the market research tells us that this is a tribe that loves MySpace.  They like the format of it. A lot of creatives really like MySpace over Facebook.  There are people who hate Facebook – hate it, hate it, hate it.  And you may just absolutely love it.  It may be your preference. But the bottom line here is, a lot of people joke around about MySpace because it isn’t as popular in the general community as it once was.

So, again, if you built your tribe solely on MySpace and now all of a sudden everyone’s using Facebook, and then all of a sudden everyone doesn’t want to use Facebook, but wants to use LinkedIn – probably not the case.  I think Facebook is being led by someone who is very competitive and will always be competing with the other services that pop up, but at any rate, it could be anything, like Pinterest.  Instagram was just recently bought by Twitter.  So now that’s different.  So you are always at the mercy of these other social media companies that own all of your data.

Notice.  There’s no privacy when it comes to social media. So, you must have, number one, an opt in form on all your social media channels  and pages.  And if you can embed it right there on the page, fantastic.  Otherwise, have a link over to your blog.  You must have your own blog and it must be social media friendly, SEO compatible, and Google friendly in order for you to beat your competition on Google when they’re searching for you.

You do these things, if you link the popular, the top seven channels, and I discuss that in a different audio program.  But if you link the top 7 social media channels that you must be on no matter who you are, if you link them all to your blog, guess what?  You have higher relevancy on your blog than you would if you didn’t have those channels.

And it’s because they are considered authority sites and very, very highly ranked sites. Like FB, and Twitter and all those things, highly ranked sites.  So when Google sees that it’s linking to your blog, your blog also gets a boost in the Google search engine.

So make sure you link them all there, and then in this tip, Tip #15, is make sure you have your own blog with your own opt in form that you will own.  You want to own your contact list.

Thanks and Tune in Again

And then, we’ll talk about this in future tips in another series, in another audio program about having your own blog and what you need to do on your blog beyond what you’re doing in the social media channels.  That is probably the number one thing you need to do and remember in social media is that these social media channels are fantastic.  They’re absolutely essential these days, in this century, but they’re only tools and advertising venues and channels to drive them to your storefront.  Your storefront is your blog, your own domain that you own.

That’s going to be critical. We’ll talk about that in the next audio program about your own blog and your opt in form, and then what you want to do with that op-tin form.  You want to have an auto-responder set up. You want to have a series. You want to be communicating with your list, giving them a one time offer, giving them special treatment, giving them information they would never find in any of your social media channels.  Behind the scenes footage, information, reports, specials, deals.

All these things you do only on your blog and your home page that you own and that you have the op-tin form to collect  your visitors and grow your list.
We’ll talk about how important that is in the next audio program.

So thank you so much for tuning in to this Secrets to Social Media Success series.

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Tip #14 – Share Behind the Scenes Footage

This is one of the funnest social media success tips that I’ve given advice for celebrity clients – the clients that have TV shows and it’s a huge thing where people see the show, they see the series on TV, but they never get beyond that.

This is a really fun tip for them, but it also really works for the average Joe or the business owner that is out there in the public eye, especially if you’re a musician, if you’re a doctor, if you’re doing anything where you’re in the public eye, they kind of want to know a little bit more about you. You know, who are you and what are you really about?

And if you do have any video presence, like if you have a popular YouTube video, and you provide some really cool tips or videos. Or if you’re a musician or an artist and they see your music video.  So when you tie into this tip, number 14, and offer additional video footage, this is the stuff they love.   They feel special and feel like they’re ‘in the know,’ and they’ve got that VIP access.  They really feel like they get to know you on a personal level.

And the secret to social media success tip that we’re talking about here is: Share Behind the Scenes Footage.

So, it can be in the form of a post, sharing from the heart like, “Hey, you know when I wrote this song, this is what I was thinking.”  And you just share and you talk about it.

If you do a recording in audio, they get to hear you. They get to hear your tone of voice.  They really feel like they get to know you and, in fact, they do!  It’s like having a personal conversation with one person except it’s reaching thousands of people at the same time with the same amount of effort.

So, video is a great way to do this as well, especially if you have…like if I put out videos that are out there on the net or on TV, if you’re a celebrity, a great way to do behind the scenes video footage, bloopers are one of the best things that people love. And they’ll watch again and again.

Because it’s like, “Ooh, this is the stuff I would not normally see because it’s not polished. It’s stuff you try to hide. It’s like a secret, right? And you just have this intrigue in our  society about, like, what are people hiding? What are the things you don’t see?  What are the things that people do to prep to show that awesome image?

Oprah Did It

Oprah did that in her magazine a couple of years ago and she had this whole, several page footage of her behind the scenes literally in the back studio prepping for the show, like how she looked in the morning with the rollers on and no makeup on and what they did to make her look presentable on TV.

And she wanted to show, like, “Hey, this is, you know what? I don’t wake up looking this good.  It takes a little bit of effort and it takes a whole team. And so here you see everything that we do.”

So let’s say you’re not in the public eye as a celebrity, but let’s say you’re a doctor.  You have a professional image.  Well, obviously, you don’t want to have a blooper of you trying something out. But you can have the behind the scenes footage of how you prep for clients coming in.  Maybe there’s research that you do. Anything where they see that you’re in your office, moves that they don’t necessarily see because they just walked into the patient office.

Maybe you’re a chiropractor or a cosmetic surgeon or you’re a dermatologist and they just go into specific rooms. Right? But if they see you in your office or maybe they just had one consult with you and then they never really go back there, put footage there of you sharing something or how you prep for clients or how you learn, how you educate yourself. What resources do you have? Anything that you can share. The things you do for your clients that they normally never see and don’t know about but you to communicate that. That’s a great way for you to boost your credibility and for them to go, “Oh, that’s how this all works.”

So think of things that you can share with them that you normally don’t have the time for or maybe you feel it’s not appropriate to have that conversation with your client, but you can share that from your office, from your heart, in some behind the scenes footage.
It may even be as simple as you going out in t he public, maybe it’s your favorite restaurant, just really getting to know you on a personal level.  So, share from the heart. Share behind the scenes, in other words, when you’re not in the office. When you’re not there, what they normally see, show them what they don’t see, what they couldn’t see.  That’s the secret voyeur in all of us. We want to know you’re doing when you’re not working. We also want to know the process you go through when you are.

So that is Tip #14 -  Share Behind the Scenes Footage

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Tip #13 – Post Controversial Questions

Tap into this social media success secret and you will have loyal fans for life!

I gave you a bonus tip when I started with tip #1, which was engagement.  If you didn’t read tip #1, I would encourage you to check that out because it ties into, we mentioned a little bit about tip #13, one of the powerful secret weapons of getting engagement and getting a lot of people active on your wall, on your blog, in comments, on Twitter, and get a firestorm of conversation going, and that is, be controversial.  Post controversial questions. Or controversial news related information or economics. And you can even tap into religion. If you dare!

Be warned that when you do tap into these things, if you take a stand one way or another, you will do two things: 1) You may alienate some people who have a strict bias to one opinion over another. They may think you’re stupid for having your opinion.  You may do that, and it’s probable.

But you will also simultaneously do number 2), which is powerful beyond anything, and that is, you will connect on such a powerful bond level with people who do think and believe just like you do.  Especially if they feel they’re the only ones who think like that. You will connect so powerfully and they will be your loyal, raving fan because they like your integrity, your beliefs, your value system.  They feel you’re just like them.  And it’s a true friendship that they start developing because you believe like them.  You share their value system.

Social Media Success Secret: People Want to Belong

And in a world where people want to belong, and they feel alienated by a culture that doesn’t believe like them or share their value system, when you take a stance and show them that you do believe one way or another, you will attract people, and with such a bond that it will be very, very difficult for any competitor to come in there and snatch them up, even if your rates are higher.  Even if you may be a little less convenient, say you live a little bit farther for them to go see.

They go to see you, and they drive – I know I drive a distance because I really like the friendship of one of the people I do business with, and their services.  And I drive a good 90 minutes.  Now, I try to do other things in that town when I do it, but could I go a mile away and get the same service?  Perhaps.  But I wouldn’t have that rapport  and that friendship that I built. Right?  Same thing.

And when people have a value system that is like yours…Could be a philosophy, too. It could just be  how you operate.  It could be because you’re involved in personal development, and they love that. And  you inspire them.  You know? So, for some people, they go, “Oh, personal development, what’s that all about? It’s all new-agey.”  And other people are like, “Oh, that’s awesome! They’re just like me! Yes! You want to learn and grow! That’s what I want to do! Oh, you’re a Tony Robbins fan, too! So am I!”  And then you’ll have another person who says, “Oh, he’s running a cult!”

Ok, so no matter what opinion, especially if you talk about philosophy and religion, politics, value systems, there will be people of different opinions.  But when you take a stand and you say, “This is what I like and believe in.”  You will attract a tribe of loyal, raving fans and followers and people who will promote you and do business with forever.  They are your friends at that next level beyond clients.

So controversials still have some cons or negative side effects that you need to be aware of, however, I think the pros outweigh the cons. Plus, you get to gather a tribe around you that you can really enjoy because you’re not offending them.  You’re just turning them on with everything that you say and believe in because they think just like you.  I mean, maybe they think just a little bit differently, but they like the engagement or perspective that you have to offer.

So, again, any time you’re real with people, especially when you tap into controversy, I guarantee you will see more engagement, more involvement, more posts, more comments, and a stronger bond than you can ever, ever, ever, ever develop with anything else other than being your authentic self.

So that was Secret to Social Media Success Tip #13, Post Controversial Questions

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Tip #12 – Separate Your Email, Using a Separate Email Address to Manage Your Social Media Accounts

Tip #12 in Secrets of Social Media Success, and in this particular tip, it’s Secrets of Social Media Sanity for your Success.  That’s because it has to do with updates and email.  You will be bombarded if you use your real, business email address when you sign up for these social media sites.  So this tip is one of the most important things that you can do on starting your social media campaign and signing up for sites.  And that is, use a separate email to manage all of your social media sites.

So when you set up your Social Media accounts, separate your email, by using a separate email address to for all  your accounts. Then you’ll have one that will be everything social media.

So, when I started the brand of CoachDeb.tv, I went into gmail. Every time you have a brand, make sure you also lock it up as a gmail address.  If you have a website, you should also have a gmail address that corresponds with the website.

What that also does is, it creates a YouTube channel automatically. So when I had CoachDeb.tv, I went in and created coachdebtv@gmail.  And then what that did was it gave me a coachdebtv YouTube account.  Ok? Because, once again, Google owns YouTube, they tie in, and they automatically create a YouTube channel for every gmail account that you have.  So, use a separate email address and then have all the updates and things like that forwarded.

Turn Off Games in Social Media Account if They Distract You

The next thing you want to do is go into your settings on Facebook and Twitter, and all the different places, LinkedIn, and take off email updates for every post that comes in.  And then also in the settings, and this is a management tip…. Especially if you’re not into these games, like Mobwars and such. I used to get so many invites and they’d appear on my wall until I went into my settings and said “Turn off any invites or any notice from game invites.  I don’t want to be involved with any mafia wars!   No! First of all, I’m addicted to games, and when that happens I’m not doing any work.

Image by GigiGo

Second of all, it just clogs up my wall with irrelevant gaming invites, so I won’t participate in them. Now, if I get an invite on my iPhone for Scramble or words with friends, that’s a different story, but I also don’t get updates on my wall about that.  It just goes to the phone. So it’s a nice little down time break. That is a side little bonus tip there.

When you play games with friends, there is a powerful connection, especially when they’re word games or challenge games or brain games. It’s just kind of a way that you can improve your work and increase your brain activity by playing these games. Like, Scramble, Words With Friends are literally activating a part of your brain…It’s kind of like brain exercising.

So those are the games that I love with my other geek friends, and we have such rapport we wind up going to a conference or posting on each other’s wall, it’s like “Less work and more Scrambling” or “Let’s do the xyz and more Scrambling” and it’s just a way of, kind of like a personal little rapport building of things you have a mutual interest for, unusual passion for.

So, again, make sure you have a separate email  for your accounts and then turn off the things that don’t turn you on. If you don’t want any games for friends, turn  that off.

The other thing you can turn off, and this is turning into kind of an organizational tip for social media success, is make sure you go in and revise some of the settings and on your wall. What appears on your wall is important. This is basically becoming people’s website, people’s front door, and there is no reason why you should have posts for every friend that you ask.

Nobody needs to, first of all, stalk your friendships.  Second of all, get that notice, and you can shut that off. You just go into settings and shut off, and very easily you can do this, and I don’t want to get into too many details, Facebook changes them all the time but this will probably always be a tip that works.

Turn off Irrelevant Information

So this is kind of a tip for anything online.  Right click on any post and it will give you the most common options. Say you add a friend and you go on your wall and right click on that post it’ll say edit or delete or whatever, and it’ll also give the option to remove all future posts that are similar to that, like friendships added from your wall.  Once you do that, you do it once and then it’s done.

So do that because it’s irrelevant unless you want to share all the friends that you’re making friends with on your wall.  If you think it’s irrelevant, you don’t think it’s necessary, and for me, I don’t think it’s important for people to be stalking your friends.  They’re your friends, they are your contacts. Say somebody’s following you everywhere you go, saying “I want to be your friend,” kind of weird.  So, just turn that off.

And there are other things that you can turn off or turn on.  You can have options whether you want to be tagged in posts or not. And these are all personal preferences that you should be sitting down with your people who do social media, and deciding what’s right for you.

But make sure you do go in there and set the settings so that you’ve got it so that you’re not inundated with emails that are unnecessary, and you don’t have it going to your, quote, business email  or you could go insane.  Then you will hate social media and you won’t participate.  And that would be a bad outcome.

So, get a separate email address, and manage every brand that you have set up, and have all of the social media channels go into that one specific email so that when you have your social media manager, they can go into that email address.

And then you can go in there at any time and see what they’re doing, what engagement is happening. Then it’s kind of a nice way of monitoring their progress and what are they doing?  It’s a really nice way to do that…Oh, they added so many friends for me today or they’ve engaged with x number of people, there’s a lot of commenting going, etc.  So now you can kind of observe and track them.

So that is Tip #12 – Separate Your Email, Using a Separate Email Address to Manage Your Social Media Accounts.  This is another secret to social media success.

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Tip #11 – Use video in your posts.

Using this secret to social media success will bring you tons of fans and friends.

Tip #11, I already talked a little bit about this in tip #10, so if you haven’t already looked at tip #10, go back to that post and really get it into your core that this is one of the most important things you can do in social media.

So tip #11 is: Use video in your posts, use video in your sharing. Share video. Link to video. And really use your own face in video. So, you want to share other peoples’ videos and things like that, that’s great. But also, the best way for you to develop rapport with future clients and current clients, getting them to continually know you, get you really top of mind and face to face, is getting behind the camera and doing video.

And I’ll tell you, this is one of the things that I always have to kick myself about. I lived in Hawaii for 7 years, and, you know,  kept being under the guise of , oh it’s gotta be perfect. And it would take all day to do one video because we had to edit it out, or we’d make a mistake.  You know what? I finally gave up all that and just was real behind the camera, and flub things up.

You know you’ll hear in this editing, there are times when I misspeak or I pronounce a word wrong, and I just repeat it.  Well, people know, especially in conversation, you’re not talking from a script and perfectly. I’m not working from a script right now.  I’m talking from tapping into the knowledge and experience of what we do for our clients and sharing them with you so that you can repeat it. You can do the same and then get fantastic results in social media.

These are the things that work, so I’m just sharing from the heart, sharing from what I know.  But I’ve got some notes that guide me. So if you do that, you have an outline. Know what you’re going to talk about, and then you just share from your knowledge base.

Be Real in Your Social Media Marketing

You’re the expert already. Trust that you know what you’re talking about. You do! And then just share it. And be real with people.

So use video, and don’t bother being perfect or looking perfect or sounding perfect. Be real. Get in front of that camera, and don’t worry if it’s not perfect.

This is one of those things that I have to constantly tell myself…that it’s good enough and doesn’t have to be perfect, just get in front of the camera.

Another goal sometimes is that added pressure. We talked about that in some of these other tips about the value people place on how the woman looks. Right?  So there is that pressure about what we feel when we think, “Oh that looks good” and things like that.

Your Video Doesn’t Have to be Perfect

And, ok, I don’t think I’ve gotten any videos with me in my sweats or pajamas and whatnot, and how I typically work right when I jump out of bed, and I get into work, and I don’t have a cup of coffee. I literally turn on the computer and I sit in my pj’s. And I start working. I don’t know if I’ll ever do a video in my pj’s. It might not be appropriate for a professional audience but, maybe I will.

Maybe just to prove the point you need to be raw, authentic, and communicate to your audience what’s behind the scenes. But I do, and I have gotten better at saying, “You know what? You don’t have to be perfectly made up, you hair doesn’t have to be perfect.”  Maybe wear a ponytail, you know, and I’ve learned that this is currently out of style, but I didn’t know that. But, I’m a geek. I told you that before. Right? But allow who you are to be who you are. You know, and I’ve had to ignore the perfect pretty girls who get in front of the camera, and they look just perfect and their hair is perfect.

And I just have to say, “You know, that’s not me.” My hair’s going to be messed up. It’ll be pulled in a ponytail sometimes and look awful, especially when I’m in my glasses. Again, you might not ever see me in glasses, but the more I am my authentic self, the more people really get to know who I am. And, I get more video done, instead of waiting for it to be perfect.

So after I do this video, I’ve got to get on TV, and get behind the camera, and get you out a video because now I have to practice what I preach. I hate being the teacher! Now I’ve got to do what I’m teaching.

But, hopefully, this has inspired you, it’s made you laugh. If I can make you laugh, then I’m happy.

But please use video. If I can drive that point home, use video. Get behind the video and don’t worry about being perfect.  People just want you to be real.

So Tip #11 is “Use Video in Your Posts.”  It will help you be successful in social media marketing.

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Tip #9 – Share Educational Content

You can educate your way to social media marketing success.  What do I mean by that?

Share things that are worthwhile to contribute to peoples’ minds, intelligence, intellect, and knowledge base.  People like learning.  People want to be informed, and people want to share things that they learn about. So they wind up spreading what they learn from you.  So you be the teacher. You provide the content, and they wind up sharing that same piece of content.

They literally share it on Facebook, they re-tweet it on Twitter, they forward it on LinkedIn. This is just a way that they spread your message and once again, you get exposure.

It’s also great for your clients to see the value and the intellect that you offer.  And it provides more social proof or more proof or evidence that you’re a valuable contributor and someone that they want to know.  Like, especially if you’ve got a good group following.  And I say that in very friendly terms, I’m considered a geek in my world.  My friends want to learn stuff.  It’s their highest value.  Stimulate their mind and intellect, and that’s how you stimulate them sharing things. Right?

So stimulate their intellect.  Feed their minds. Feed their brains with good, newsworthy content, relevant tips.  This could be you teaching them things within your industry, your business that are relevant. Or it could just be in general. You could be sharing something that’s really useful.

Make Your Followers the Hero in Social Media

When you do things like this, your followers wind up, number 1, feeling cool that they went to your wall and have been educated.  And they’re like, “Yeah, this is awesome information.  I’m going to come back here more often.”  It reinforces them visiting your page because you provide true value in an educational sense.

It also helps them get accelerated results to watch you spread intelligent news and information and learning to their followers. Because you help them be the hero to their followers.  And you make them the hero, they consider you their hero.   So make them the hero and you’ll be their hero.

Another variation about sharing newsworthy or educational content is going to be revealed in Tip #14, kind of the next level of sharing news as it relates to you, personally.

So check out Tip #14 in this “Secrets to Social Media Success” series, and you will get a next level of educational sharing that your clients will absolutely love and be bonded to you in a very, very personal way.

So that is Tip #9 – Share Educational Content

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Tip #8 – Share Social Causes and Contribute to Charitable Events

Your followers will support your social causes if you use this social media marketing tip.

The things that you’re passionate about and contribute to, maybe you contribute to the St. Jude’s foundation or another non-profit organization that truly make a difference in this world.  Make the world a better place. Help people that need services and need your help.  When you do things like that and provide, and really contribute and give back, that’s what people will respond to, and they will spread your message, and campaign, if you’re involved with it, more than any other thing.  Quotes, positive quotes, and charity causes are the two most popular ways that people spread your message.

The third is entertainment.  If you’re funny. If you put out a funny video. Even silly, stupid stuff.  Have you seen the frog  that they had recently?  There’s  a video where they’re having this frog play this stupid game and he’s hitting the screen.  This went so viral it got on the David Letterman show.  And it’s now all over.  If you haven’t seen it, go to my wall and you’ll absolutely see this, because it’s funny.

That video is very funny.  Some of the videos posted on YouTube are just stupid, and those things just spread.  Unfortunately, that’s the other part of our culture – that they like stupid s**t.

Get Your Tribe Behind Your Cause with Social Media Marketing

But the other part of our culture, the really awesome part of our society is that we also want to give back.  We want to contribute. We want to share our success and our financial fortune with people who aren’t as fortunate.  Who need our help.  And when we do that and we contribute, people want to help us spread the news.  They want to get behind our cause.

So when you do things like that, all it is, is sharing what you’re passionate about on the giving side, on the contribution side.

And once again, it’s a basic human need.  Only we evolve with our basic needs being met, our food, shelter, attention, love, affection…all those things that we need.  We then reach into the evolved needs of wanting to contribute, we want to give back, we want to leave a legacy, we want to make the world a better place because we were in it.

It gives us a purpose for our life that has meaning, and when you provide ways for your clients to feel meaningful and do things that are meaningful, that is something that you will definitely be noticed for, and people will really get to know what you’re passionate about.  And it’s amazing how much you can accomplish with this.

At one of the recent Blog Worlds, they hit the Guinness Book of World Records for the most amount of Tweets that were spread and re-Tweeted, and we wound up raising the most amount of money, through that campaign, for the American Cancer Society.

Tagging in Social Media

So, this was something that people were passionate about. I think we all tagged it with a specific tag.  So when you do charitable events, make sure you do have a tag for the Tweets in the thread.  And our tag is the hash tag or number sign (#) that you see on your phone or on the computer.  And then you put the word that your charity is all about.  Some people do initials, and you can do that, but when you have a word that reaches out and grabs people and gets their attention…if you put tag and then put breast cancer, people go, “Oh, what this is about?”

So, things like that, when you contribute and really provide value, you’ll make a difference in this world. And that’s what reaches people at a higher level and to their core and will get such a tribe around you as their tribal leader because you’re doing great things and people want to be involved with great things and they want to follow great leaders.

Be a great leader and spread the things that you’re passionate about in social causes.

This is social media marketing tip number 8: Contribute to Charitable Causes and Share with Your Followers

Here are just a few examples of charities you can help with.  Use these, or pick one of  your own and get involved.  You’ll feel good about yourself, and others will feel good about you.

http://www.inclusionproject.org/ Clay Aiken’s foundation for disabled kids.

http://www.cancer.org/Involved/Participate/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/index American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer walk

http://www.stjude.org St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital

http://www.aspca.org/ Help animals in need. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

http://www.mhopus.org/ The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation   Donates musical instruments to school music programs.

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Tip #7 – Provide True Value

This is probably the most valuable of all the social media marketing tips except for Tip #1 which is “Engagement,” because that what it’s all about. When we’re talking about engagement, real engagement, tip #7 is a business tip in and of itself, regardless of social media. But it’s so relevant when it comes to you going viral.

Going Viral in Social Media Marketing

Now, everyone comes to me and they ask, “How do I go viral?” Or I go to these networking events and they say, “Let me buy you a drink and let’s spend 10 minutes and come up with a campaign and I want to go viral.” And all they want to do is game the system or figure out a way like, “Oh, I heard you can get someone from the Philippines and they’ll tag your videos and get 20,000 people checking it out, and oh, how can we do this?”

And it’s all fake, fictitious, even like Twitter…you can follow people just so they can follow you back, and it’s like gaming the system.  And you know what? The only value that that serves other than the SEO and the linking and whatnot…And it’s valuable in the SEO world, and people like doing it and they’re so attracted to it…as well as social proof. Right? Because if you do have a number of posts and people that like it, then other people go, “Oh, I gotta check this out.”

Don’t Try to Fake It in Social Media – It Just Doesn’t Work

However, if you don’t exercise and execute this tip, I know I haven’t said it yet, number 7…But if you don’t exercise this and follow this as a core principle in your business, you will fail miserably, even if you pay for 20,000 people to like your video or like your post or whatever.  Because you’re not providing the value that your clients want.  So this tip, probably the most important, number 7, is “Provide True Value.”

That’s in your business. Make sure your business has real value, that you treat people exceptionally well.  Offer them an extraordinary service, and then they’ll review you positively on Yelp and all these other social media sites that are review sites.  But not without you really providing value.

So we want you to get reviews on these geotargeted apps and services. That’s critical. That’s something that you need to do, right?  The more people are using these apps and services the more relevant and your good reviews are going to come in handy. And if you’re not on there, you will lose business. They will go to your other competitors.

So the best way to do this is provide real value, provide exceptional service to your clients, and again, it’s your bottom line real business strategy and strategic advice.  Right? Even if social media didn’t even exist, it’s something you should do, but now that it does, now that social media is so popular,  and people talk about your company, good or bad on the networks where it spreads like wildfire, this is critical – Providing Real Value.

Social Media is a Place Where You Can Make Your Clients Feel Like Stars

I was having a conversation with a new client that has luxury rental cars. And they’re doing some really cool stuff about treating their clients like VIP’s.  They (the client) become the star for the day.  Everyone wants that 15 minutes of fame, and they’re giving it to them.

They are not just giving them a really cool, fast, luxury, gorgeous sports car that drives fast, that is sexy, and has a sexy roar to the engine.  They’re also doing a lot of really special things to treat them like celebrity status. And that’s how they’re going to differentiate themselves from the competition, and that’s how they’re going to get awesome reviews on Yelp and all the other social media sites…Facebook,  when they check in, Foursquare, all these other places because, they’re providing such an experience for their clients that their clients can’t help but talk about it and spread the news.

So provide real value and you will get real reviews that are exceptional, five star reviews.
Real value = Real Results and Real Positive Reviews.

So that’s Tip #7 – Provide True Value

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Tip #6 – Have contests that are meaningful

In Social Media Marketing, this is a great way to get to know who wants your product.

Have contests.  Not just have contests, but have contests that are meaningful.  Anyone can have a contest.  Anyone can say, “Oh, we’re going to give this away.”  But if it’s not meaningful to the client, they don’t care about what you’re offering.  They’re not going to participate.

But if you have a sales contest, and this happens all the time, it’s all about testing and retesting and then learning from it and then going back in there with something better.  Better offer, contest, better products, better give away…Whatever it is, or better selection process of awarding them.  So learn from the contests.

The best way you’re going to know how to have meaningful contests is really knowing your target audience, knowing what they really like. One client who knows their client likes Louis Vuitton bags, for a gift.  Another client who knows their audience will just slurp up off of an iPad contest.  Anything that you give an iPad for, they are just going to participate.

Social Media Marketing – Find out who really wants your product or service.

So know  your clients.  If you have a race car company, it could be something where they get a gift certificate to come out to your event or take part in what you have to offer.  If you have luxury sports cars that you rent out, have a contest where it’s a day at the race track or a day where they get it for free.  It’s an awesome way to find out who really wants your product or service.

The cool thing about that is that one person is going to win that freebie, but you’ve had hundreds of people who have stepped up and said, “Oh, I want that!”  Oh, my gosh, they have just opted in and said they want your service.  Then you find a way to offer them some type of discount or special or time-limited offer, to get them to then buy your product.

So leverage those contests, but make sure they are meaningful.  Make sure they are something that people really want, and then you can give it to them.  There are a lot of resources.  There are also contest apps that you can participate in that will manage contests.  We will put some resources to help you manage contests on CoachDeb.tv.

But bottom line is, however you have the contest, make sure it’s meaningful, and if not, if you didn’t get a good response, that means you just didn’t hit the target. And you need to get back, mastermind with your team, talk to your consultant, talk to your significant right hand person and find out what it is that people are really going to respond to.

And dig deep into your pocket.  This is not the time to be cheap and offer something stupid or cheap.  If you think it’s cheap or it’s easy for you, then it’s not going to be something that other people are going to work for.  It’s not.  So dig deep.  Do something really cool, uber-special, and be right. People will go, ” Whoa! I will do anything to win that.”

And that’s a great way to find out the people who want your services, especially if you give away something that you offer that they would have to buy otherwise.  That’s a great contest. You’re screening the people.

So, tip #6, have contests. Make them meaningful.  Test them, then repeat the contest that works, with variations.  Do it random as well.

Contests are a great tool to add to your social media marketing toolkit.

Resources – Here are a few apps and sites to get you started.

http://www.wizehive.com/contest/
http://www.artistichub.com/index.htm

http://blazonapp.com/ This is an app.
http://appbistro.com/facebook-business-app/products/easypromos

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