Here’s my free 50 minute lesson to start making Social Media (twitter, facebook, linked in) work as part of your overall marketing.

If you want the full Social Media Action Tool, it’s got lots more tips, tools and resources. Have some great ideas of your own? Please share them with us in comments below! Or maybe you have questions or quirks using specific Social Media platforms that you want help figuring out? Let us know and we’ll try to get you an answer.

After all, ignorance is frustrating, but Knowledge is Bliss.

Thanks to Xplane’s terrific video on Social Media for this information which I believe is changing our ‘world order’ in marketing communications. Here are my ‘clif notes’ but the full video can be seen here: From Xplane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8&feature=player_embedded#t=30.

Here are my clif notes pullled from this video:

This year advertising is in steep decline:

• print down 18%
• TV down 10%
• radio down 11%
• magazines down 14.8%

the number of unique visitors each month for major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS):

10 million

Meanwhile, digital advertising is growing rapidly:

• cel phone ads are up 18%
• internet ads are up 11%

The number of unique visitors each month on Social Media (YouTube, Facebook and MySpace):

250 million

If you want the full report, watch the video.

WHEN YOU’RE READY TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK:

Take a look at our action tool to show you how to set up social media to attract clients who need you! http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#socialmedia.

I loved my Joanne Black’s recent article on sales and social media, reminding us that human interaction is more important than bandwidth:

http://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/blog/back-in-the-black-newsletter/why-social-networks-won%E2%80%99t-build-your-business-september-back-in-the-black-newsletter/

We’d like to hear your comments on what your experience is with this?

May this knowledge bring you bliss.

from my  old blog: Monday, January 7, 2008
(I’d add social media to this list now in 2009)

One of the hardest marketing chores for many businesses is building a list of great ‘target prospects’ or potential clients to whom one wants to sell one’s products or services.

What are the ideal methods for this?
Naturally, each business or each owner has their own favorite ways of finding their perfect client. Here are a few I’ve used with clients–and a few they use on their own with varied success:

1. rent mailing lists.
This method is truly a crap shoot since you’ve no relationship with the people on the list, so it’s least likely to ‘perform’ for you. But it’s a great way to start testing outreach, and for specific sales campaigns it can generate some good return on the invested cost.

2. post blogs and respond to readers who reply. At least they know something about you having read your blogs. It’s a more likely sale this way, and a great way to build a list.

3. Capture enews or newsletter subscribers by offering something free to them. Again, they’re ready something about your company so your foot is in the door a bit further trying to sell to this list.

4. Social networking. Post links to your site and sign up forms so you can capture their information if they’re interested in what you sell.

5. Networking or speaking to organizations. Collect cards of people you meet in person at events, or networking and build your own list. Since you’ve met the person, know something about them and they you, this is a much faster sales cycle–meaning they are more likely to purchase your products/services sooner since they’ve met you.

6. Go to the library and find companies you want to serve on their proprietary databases. I often find this is much faster than searching online for lists that are not exactly what I need. No kidding, librarians are a vast wealth of info. If ONLY I’d realized that while I was in college

7. Media lists, like Bacon’s Directory and similar collections are usually out of date as soon as they’re printed due to a large turnover in that industry. But it’s still one of the best for building a media list.

What are your favorite ways to build a list? Give us your comments and let us learn from your experiences because after all, Knowledge is Bliss.

from my old blog: Friday, July 31, 2009

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE?
What is your experience on the value of Social Media to your company (linked in, twitter, facebook, etc.)? I’ll share a tally of what I deduce from people’s responses here if you participate. Here are some of my thoughts: http://www.allisonbliss.com/newsletter/connections-and-internet-marketing.htmI’m dying to hear people are actually gaining business, not just branding, from all the time spent on Social Media.

MAGIC MARKETING PILL
We all want a magic pill for our marketing to burst through the roof, but the closest I’ve found so far is super smart, experienced, resourceful, action-based Marketing Coaching. There are those who swear a good website is all you need, or fabulous customer service, or the cutest logo – but that’s not the only answer, and in fact just too narrow-minded.

But if you find that magic pill that works for all businesses, by all means prescribe it for me.  After all, knowledge is bliss – but pills are easier to swallow :0
 UPDATE: we found people were wasting lots of time trying to learn social media, so we created an action tool to help them get on track: www.allisonbliss.com/services

You can either make social media work for you, or spend days of wasted time trying to figure it out.I chose the latter til I really focussed on it. I used to laugh at all the time people spent tweetting & chirping useless information until I learned how to put those birds to work singing my song.

I’ve already met people doing fascinating work who are considering our agency for outsourced marketing services. And I just found them with a quick intro through ‘social’, a the whizzes call ‘social media’ channels like Linked in, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Some of my advisors have landed $300,000 projects, and others are building lists of potential clients they can deepen a relationship with to ultimately bring in more business. My personal favorite result of ‘social’ was to find old buddies in the film industry and reconnect with them. I’m expecting to bring them some work at some point, too. So, connections are just everything.

Marketing is shifting as I write this and businesses who succeed are learning to create dynamic websites where customers are engaged & responsive. Businesses need connections to survive and that’s what ‘social’ is all about.

Even for those of us with huge lists of connections, there is a whole different culture out there for us to reach.

How can you learn this, set up an action plan to get ‘social’ in a week and start connecting?Take a look at our action tool on social media.
If there’s something you’re dying to learn, let me know and I’ll include it.