In a session “Publishing for Social Media” Jim Bankoff, Chairman & CEO of SB Nation, discussed using social media to drive traffic to generate revenue. It could have been 2005 at AOL where Jim’s content team passed that same message to those of us on the search team. The goal then was to use search to drive traffic to higher CPM pages. Now just change “search” to “mobile” and the story is the same

The first of the two videos is from Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi. He spoke about The People Network and the top piece of advice from him when it comes to working with new technologies is to use them.

The other video is along the same path — it’s not a case study, but it goes more to approach. This is from Adam Kmiec, Director of Social Media at Walgreen’s. He discusses choosing partnerships, asking your agency “explain”, and look for a wow factor that can separate your program from your competitors. He cited Walgreen’s program to donate a flu shot for every Foursquare check-in and how that beat CVS to the punch.

Video:
Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at VivaKi
Adam Kmiec, Director of Social Media at Walgreens

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• What Does It Take To Be a Social Strategist? [INFOGRAPHIC] (mashable.com)

Today’s Mobile event was split into two sections.  The morning focused more on using mobile as a platform to build brand and the afternoon’s program was called “Mobile Apps.”  It focused more on the business of building apps and using them in your online model.

The one lesson that came out of the afternoon apps session is that the most important thing an app developer can do to get in the top 10 is to be in the top 10.  Because Apple promotes the top 10 in each category the most important move to make is to get into the top 10 because it is so difficult to dislodge an app from the list.

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• Mobile Apps Economy [Infographic] (trak.in)

Even with some major heat inside the 69th Regiment Armory, the event seemed like a big success.  I was lucky to meet with some good people from groups like Proclivity Systems, Figment.com, 33across, and EveryDay Health, and hope to have some future follow-up.

ROI is always important, but I think the issue at this stage of the social commerce experience the difficulties is in identifying the ROI + vs -.

It’s straight forward to do the simple math of how much you took in vs how much you gave away, but there are other numbersthat need to factored in, but they may be tough to qualify.

Off the top of my head, so please add others:
Some positives:
1) After the buyer gets the $X of product for the $Y they spent, did they by more?
2) Did they come back again?
3) How about the publicity of being promoted to all the subscribers and then virally to the friends of the buyer

Some negatives:
1) Need to generate more margin to make up for discount
2) discounts bought by clients who would have paid full price anyway (make it sound like a ‘treat’ for them in the copy)
3) Does discount hurt the brand? Could it turn people into ‘waiters’? That wait until deals come out before they come back?

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Top Tactic in Social Media

Today is the day. The tactic used in social media to stir up interest: The Countdown.  Just like I did to get you here.

First my apologies for using a self-serving trick, but I did so to make a point.  And that is — it works.  Even with nothing really to offer I added 14 new followers in the last 3 days.

The best thing about the Countdown tactic is that it’s really easy. The only challenge is the planning because you have to get out in front of it to give you the lead time.  What should you do:

1. Find a reason — a new product launch; the anniversary of an event in your industry; anything with some relevance and value to your intended audience.
2. Layout your announcements.  I think it’s best to write them up in one sitting, so when it comes time to execute it’s just a matter of paste and schedule.  Remember that these are just teases, so they shouldn’t be too long, so writing up a bunch isn’t that difficult.  I advocate this, rather than write as you go, because it’s tough to stay on topic and on schedule if you write as you go over multiple days.
3. Plan your Twitter posts to hit different parts of the day. Not everyone reads Twitter at 8am, so spread them out at different times to hit different users.

Coming Next Week — Just 4 days until I give you the next most popular tip: What do you think it is?

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• The Four Pillars Of Twitter Marketing For Businesses | Social … (socialmediaalacarte.com)
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Just 1 Day Left

Come back tomorrow. Can you feel it? It’s almost time to learn about the top marketing tactic in social media.

Just 2 Days Left

Come back on Friday, March 25, for my article about the hottest marketing tactic in social media.

Just 3 Days Left

Comeback on Friday, March 25, for my article about the hottest marketing tactic in social media.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

NASCAR has started and I’m watching the Daytona 500 with the nearly 3-year-old -
“Daddy, Cheerios!
Look it’s, Target!
Hey, M & M’s!
Home Depot! Can we go Home Depot?”

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Think about this idea of choosing your clients.  So many of us are in the constant state of trying to acquire new clients that it never seems possible that you can have all you can handle or, more importantly, all you want.  The best part is that he can use Binghamton as his base and its easy access to NYC and Boston for working with clients.   Ahh, just sayin’.