How to get more attention with your social media messages - 4 Tips

Get more attention with your social media marketing messages?

La la la la I'm not listening! Just think of fighting that uphill attention battle every time you want to be heard in “free” social medium forums. There is more clutter now than ever, and people are going to get savvier at learning how to filter out the noise.

Do you Tivo/DVR? Get frustrated when opening up a video and seeing a pre-roll advertisement? People will continue to look for VALUE, and will get better at being able to search for relevant content. Here are tips to help you break through and get people to really want to listen:

1. Headlines - Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
There is a definite art to headlines, and to tweets that grab attention. Guy Kawasaki is a master, and Personal Branding Expert Dan Schawbel is another - if you don’t believe me, just check out their twitter feed, better yet, follow them, and you will see that the reason you should click through is apparent RIGHT AWAY. If it’s a REPORT, OPINION or ADVICE, I know if I should bother finding out more. They saved their audiences time, and it is definitely appreciated. Be open and honest (transparent) as to what VALUE someone will find and people will be more likely to NEED to find out more.
2. What’s your hook song, or first track?
If you’ve ever bought an album, you know that the opening track has to really grab your attention for you to feel the rest of the album is worth your time listening. Same thing with your social media content - Don’t give people a chance to shut you out too soon. If you’ve got a very relevant piece of content for your target audience, think of what part of your content is going to be catchy enough to make them want to keep listening!
3. Keywords, people!
On a social media project recently, I was assigned the task of broadcasting social media content across a wide variety of platforms. Problem was, in order for me to broadcast it, I’d have to rewrite most of the headlines, so I’d have to take time looking through a lot of content to feel if I could put my own brand on the line by broadcasting it. The professionally produced video content, I felt was valuable information, but hidden beneath rather weak descriptions. Don’t make any effort you have wasted, especially with professionally produced content like video, or even a blog post you took time writing - think of it as your front door!
4. How Tos and Tips
It has been found that tweets most likely to get retweeted contain the phrases “How To” and “Tips.” People want to know how they can learn how to do something better, or even just how to do something period. And tips, well, by breaking this blog post down into four easy to digest chunks, you could quantify right away how many tips you were in for. There are too many decisions we all have to make as technology makes life ubercomplicated. If we can save each other the trouble, it makes life so much easier, and gets people to want to listen that much easier.

Isn’t that what this is all about? Please help me by sharing your comments and suggestions with me on these tips, and thoughts on others you’d like to know more about. Thanks!

What's in Your Social Media Fridge? Can You Easily Find a Snack?

via salestores.com

Yesterday I presented a private social media/online marketing class. It is always awesome to learn what's most important to people - it's very unique for every individual.

Just like you don’t take out all the contents of your refrigerator when you want to get a quick snack, you have to know what you want to want, and what tools will work best for you. A lot is trial and error, I admit. I have found a lot of content in the area of social media, newsletters, RSS feeds, and bears OH MY.

But over time, I found what was most useful and relevant for me to share as news items on LinkedIn, in my blog, or on twitter.

So you make a list of what you want to buy right, right? What are you going to digest and eat in your social media house?

Then you go shopping. Load the fridge with your frequently grabbed snacks right to the front (my hootsuite for twitter, and netvibes and google alerts for my inputs…).

Then you open these packages on a daily basis to grab a tasty morsel.

So, my big tip for the day is to find out what content you want to share with your network, and a way to receive it on a daily basis. Do you prefer e-mail? Sign up for a newsletter. Do you prefer an RSS feed? Try Google Reader, Netvibes - whatever works for YOU. But find the content, and then start sharing and commenting.

If you want to have a voice online, you’ve got to have something to say. Now all you have to do is go find the content and make sure you keep those packages in the front of the fridge, so you don’t have to tear it up from top to bottom to find it. Now go find the people who want to hear it and be part of the conversation!

Posted via web from vickie_smith's posterous

How to Build Your Brand in Social Media For Your Job Search

This weekend, I hosted my first face-to-face social media strategy session for job seekers. I wanted to pay it forward and help my fellow project managers with tips on using social media for your job search. That is what inspired this latest video I created.

Some focused branding strategies based on each person’s use of social media, LinkedIn profile revamp and specific online activity recommendations, and some automating tools and techniques to keep the whole engine running.
The main focus was on LinkedIn, and how you can tap into groups, your networks, and advanced search.

We talked about minimizing efforts in receiving information (especially with RSS feeds) and then sharing that valuable information with various social networks, especially LinkedIn groups. We also discussed making the content precise and targeted based on goals. That’s strategy at its finest.
From all that was discussed in this private session, I found that using the example of my own online activity showing up in Google Search, was eye-opening for the small group. Have you Googled yourself lately? If you are a business, you probably have, as well as look for your competitors, but the ANALYTICS are very important if you want to see what a recruiter will see when they look for you. Google alert - it doesn’t hurt! It would hurt more if the recruiter didn’t find you and moved on, right?

Some of you may be just Spectators, and that’s OK.

But if you are looking for a job, and social media is free, how can you not tap into it? Well, except your time, but use tools to help you automate as much as possible.

There are new tools popping up every day, and there always will be. Come to think of it, if you want to keep on top of a Certified Project Manager who’s a Social Media Strategist, you can automate and subscribe to this blog, right? Look forward to hearing from you!

Posted via web from vickie_smith's posterous