Social Media and Breast Cancer Awareness

For the past few days women on Facebook have been participating in a fun little meme wherein they post they bra color as their Facebook status. The point of this meme is raise awareness of breast cancer.

While this meme has been fun and has created a lot of conversation, I would like to suggest that it has created the wrong conversations. It has been overall a successful meme with millions of women participating (and even a few men). But what did it really do to help cure cancer? Probably nothing.

There is nothing wrong with a campaign that only raises awareness. But did the breast cancer camp really need more awareness? Are most Americans not fully aware of the tragedies of breast cancer now? Far be it for me to be the one to school the might powers that be behind the breast cancer awareness campaigns. They are truly talented and powerful people. But, I would like to suggest that it is time for them to move on to step two of the marketing golden rules-

Marketing Golden Rules

1. Create Awareness

2. Educate Your Audience

3. Call to Action

By now we are all fully aware of breast cancer and how awful it can be. I think all women know by now that they need to get checked for it. So it is time for rule #2. What can women do to avoid getting breast cancer? Are there precautions that should be taken? What else do women need to know about breast cancer?

Now don’t get me wrong, the bra color campaign worked. We’re talking about breast cancer, aren’t we?

Social Media Solving Crimes?

Can social media solve crimes? Can it help law enforcement find a missing person? Or identify a suspect? It is entirely possible. Is it happening effectively yet? I really don’t think so.

The Salt Lake Tribune ran a piece today regarding the use of social media in the Susan Powell search. Susan Powell, a mother and wife, disappeared a few weeks ago, and to date there have been no clues as to where she may be found. The night she went missing, her husband took their two small children camping in their car, after midnight, to a remote location in Utah, on a night with below freezing temps.

My thoughts on the obvious stupidity of a man taking two children camping on a freezing cold night, in a car, during the work/school week, without his wife, and claiming he didn’t know where he was when he took his children out in the middle of the night, aside, let’s discuss social media.

The Salt Lake Tribune will mislead you in the opening paragraphs into thinking that social media is being used to search for Susan Powell. And wouldn’t it be great if it was? But no, social media, namely Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, have been used by individuals for moral support and spreading the word. A Facebook “fan” page (yet another example where the term “fan page” is not an accurate description of what the page is about) has been created as an online moral support group. A friend/supporter has taken their existing and popular viral video and added a missing alert to it. And the paper suggests that Twitter has been used to spread the message (but no evidence given).

I was disappointed when i read the article. I had been hoping to discover that law enforcement agencies (LEA) wereusing social media to solve a case. But I’m not surprised that this isn’t the case.

Wouldn’t it be great if LEA’s would or could embrace SMM? Imagine a Facebook page that users could join to receive breaking news updates from their local LEA. When a child goes missing, or anyone goes missing for that matter, a notice could go out quickly and rapidly to Facebook “fans.” Or an automatic update to Twitter? What about instead of just sending out alerts to the news media, LEA’s also inform bloggers influential in their region? Think of how many more people would get the message and quicker!

Let’s take it one step further with YouTube. While it is very interesting and exciting to see that an interested, yet unrelated,  outside party would edit their own viral video to support a cause, I’m more interested in ways LEA’s could use YouTube.  You know those 10 second clips of bad guys getting away you see on the nightly news? What if LEA’s had their own YouTube channels, and people could subscribe to them? If I could replay those little clips over and over again on YouTube, rather than just barely see it once on the news, maybe I’d be of some service! Also, what if LEA’s were to put up home footage and pictures on YouTube of missing persons to help us identify them? Again, if I could see the videos more than once, maybe I’d have a chance of recognizing them later.

Social Media has not yet seen its full potential. There are so many more applications out there where it could be used! Don’t give up too quickly!

How Social Media is like a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I love a good grilled cheese sandwich. I love a good gourmet grilled cheese. I get all excited about the type of cheese and the type of bread. White bread with American? Not in my house! I’m all about Jarlsberg cheese, or maybe some Muenster, on a nice sourdough or French or Italian bread. Put it all together, with just a tiny bit of butter on the pan, turn up the heat just right, and in 2-3 minutes you have crispy, gooey deliciousness.

But what does any of this have to do with social media? Everything. Or at least in my dairy deprived stomach it does. Work with me here.

As I was making myself a delicious Tillamook Colby Jack on Sourdough with a brushing of olive oil today, I came up with the idea that a grilled cheese sandwich can be like social media. The bread is the communication medium or tool, and the cheese is the message. A good social media marketing campaign is all about picking just the right communications tool, and for everyone it will be slightly different. You need to pick it according to taste- will it be sourdough? Italian? French? Rye? Wonder? The tool/network/site/method you pick says a lot about you.  The bread makes all the difference. Where you choose to put your message is a key ingredient to success.

Jarlsberg? Mozzarella? Sharp Cheddar? Facebook? Private networks? Email Campaigns? It may take several taste tests to decide just how you “kraft” your message. (Okay, worst pun ever. Forgive me.) You don’t give up when the first cheese you taste isn’t your favorite, so don’t give up when Facebook doesn’t turn out to be the perfect solution to spreading your message. (Somewhere in there I’m missing the chance to make a terrible joke about Cheez Wiz and other spreadable cheese products.)

Next, we have to discuss the careful timing of knowing when to flip the grilled cheese sandwich so that it doesn’t scorch in the pan. Anyone who has ever attempted to make a grilled cheese in a frying pan knows how difficult this can be to do. Do you use a high setting and flip often? Or leave it on low and put a lid on it? The answer is different for everyone depending on the thickness of the bread, how much cheese, the amount of butter in the pan, etc. No one can tell you exactly what to do. I offer to you that it is the same with social media. Knowing when to say it, how often to say it, and where to say it cannot be summed up in a perfect recipe that fits every need. A little trial and error will be necessary to create that perfect combination.

So if your first attempt at social media doesn’t work out perfectly, don’t despair. Anyone who has ever made a blackened and scorched grilled cheese sandwich has still made a grilled cheese sandwich. If you scratch off the charcoaled edges, there is still a perfectly good sandwich under there. Maybe your campaign wasn’t perfect, but you still got your message out there, right?

And on that note, I’m going to go make myself lunch.

Effective Traffic Destinations

I am the lucky owner of 1 dog, 1 puppy, 1 cat, and 1 kitten. Life is a zoo around here, and I love it. My dog is old and wise in her years, and can be trusted with anything. You could leave a rare t-bone steak on the coffee table and she wouldn’t touch it. More than once I’ve accidentally shut her out of the house, just to find her patiently waiting for me by the front door hours later. My puppy? That’s another story. In her short tenure here in my house she has chewed through several pairs of shoes, one computer power cord, and has eaten everything she can reach. Nothing is safe from her eager little puppiness. But I love her, so she stays.

Not surprisingly I can let the older dog out in the yard without a leash without fear that she may run away. (Well, there is this one Mastiff down the road she likes to pay social calls on, but that’s a story for a different day.) The puppy, on the other hand, must be kept on a very short leash and watched very closely. Recently though I have discovered that I can trust my big old shephard dog to keep an eye on the puppy for me. If I let the puppy run around with the leash on, the older dog will chase her around, grab the leash, and drag her around the yard for me.

And sure enough, I found an analogy in that. It is fun to watch a dog walk another dog on a leash, but the truth is, they don’t know where they are going. The big dog is just dragging the other dog whereever she can take her. She has no clear direction or goal (other than to be the boss of the littler dog). And yes, I think there is a social media lesson to learn in there.

Sometimes we make the mistake of having fun using a social media site, and forget we need to have a clear direction. If we forget to make sure that we are driving traffic to a specific and the most effective destination, we’re just having fun but not getting anywhere. The hard cold truth is that if you are not driving your online traffic (with social media tools) to the right destination, you are just wasting your time. My dogs can march each other around the yard fifty times, and I’ll get a good laugh from it every time, but if the big dog doesn’t take the puppy to her favorite fire hydrant, the most important objective of sending the puppy outside won’t be met.

Before engaging in any social media marketing campaign you have to know your destination. Social media tools are meant to drive traffic to the most effective destination. In most cases, that destination will be your website. Don’t make the mistake of using Twitter to drive people to your Facebook page, which then directs your audience to your blog, which then leads them to your website. Just send them to the website! Otherwise, you will lose your audience in the traffic. Make sure every social media site is sending your audience to the same place (and not just to each other).

Two dogs prancing around the yard, pulling each other on the leash is fun to watch, but is completely pointless in the end. Don’t be a dumb dog!

Freelance and Social Media Marketing Consulting

Are you or your company looking for ways to incorporate social media and engagement marketing into your overall communications plan? Or wondering how social media can improve your sales and image? Should you be on Facebook? MySpace? What about BeBo or Gather? Ask a social media marketing expert!

I am available for freelance, short-term, or long-term social media marketing consulting. The first consultation is always free!

Monetizing Your Blog

Are you trying to make money by blogging? Or improve sales by blogging? No matter which is your goal, here are four essential things to know when writing a professional blog.

Content is king- what you are writing about is what matters! Does your audience care? Are they reading your posts? Are they commenting? Coming back for more? If the answer to all of these questions is no, you’ve got a problem. Go back and work on your content!

SEO is not what it is all about- many companies have started blogs (and worse yet, may affiliate marketers do the same) just for SEO purposes. While it may serve its original purpose, it doesn’t do the company good in the long run. If you are writing a blog just for the purpose of creating links to your website using keywords, you are missing out on the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, and probably damaging your reputation! Your audience can tell when your blog is just a link farm filled with keywords. Instead of writing dry, dull posts filled with keywords, find the topics your audience wants to read about. Write for them! Write to improve your image! If your keywords can’t be inserted into blog posts of interest to your audience, you need to stop and re-evaluate!

Google ads to the rescue? Thanks to the convenience of Google ads, many bloggers have started running them on their blogs. Are they making any money off of them? Probably not. Before you try to monetize or capitalize on your blog, stop and ask yourself when is the last time you clicked on a text ad on the side of a website? Do you read them or click on them? Or find them annoying and ignore them? Your personal choice to this question (and it is different for everyone) will tell you whether or not you should run an ad. Tip: If your blog is getting less than 1,000 readers a day, do not expect to make any money off of Google ads! Another insider’s tip: When your blog is good enough, has enough readers, and is respected enough, the advertisers tend to come to you. You don’t go looking for them!

Building relationships of trust- Your blog is your best tool for building relationships of trust with your customers and audience. While your blog should be used to promote the sale of your own product, it should also be used to create confidence in your product/company, and build up your expertise and knowledge of your industry. If your audience isn’t turning to you for leadership, expertise, and information, you are not using your blog to its fullest potential!

Your blog has the potential to be your company’s greatest asset. Your blog is your opportunity to share what you want people to know about you and your product. Use it wisely. Use it creatively. Use it uniquely.

Social Bookmarking

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to a class of entrepreneurs about social media marketing. I covered all sorts of things from how Twitter works, why you want a Facebook fan page, to what social bookmarking can do for a blog or website. When I give these lessons it is always interesting to me what the class will latch on to and really focus on. In this particular class, it was social bookmarking.

To demonstrate how StumbleUpon or Digg can help others find your blog/website, I pulled up my own personal site and clicked on the most recent post. I showed how easy it is to click “Like It” on StumbleUpon and categorize and label a post. I also demonstrated other uses for social bookmarking sites, particularly how to find other authoritative or popular blogs/sites. Today I randomly checked the visits to my own personal blog. The numbers were through the roof! In less than 24 hours from bookmarking my site, I had received a 100% increase over my usual daily traffic! Not surprisingly, it was all from StumbleUpon.

Apparently, social bookmarking really does work!

Social Media and Engagement Marketing

I am the guest blogger this week for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City. I chose to talk about the call for Social Media and Engagement Marketing. I hope you will check it out. It is a longer and more in-depth analysis than my previous blog post on the same subject.

NASA’s Social Media Savvy

During the last Space Shuttle mission NASA embraced Twitter as @Astro_Mike tweeted from space. In a time where Americans are losing their enthusiasm for the space race, this was a very strategic move. Encouraging fans to become more connected with the space shuttle program and the astronauts themselves has created a free word of mouth campaign that money could never buy. Passive fans who may still thrill at the sight of a shuttle launch, but will vote against increasing the NASA budget, can be easily reached and re-energized with a few personal tweets from the Shuttle. Commercials and billboards can never compete with the personal words from Astronaut Mike Massimino, “From orbit: At the end of my spacewalk, I had time to just look at the Earth, the most awesome sight my eyes have seen, undescribable.” What space lover didn’t wish to be there with him at that moment?

NASA’s social media savvy continues this week when @NASA sends 100 of its Twitter followers to Cape Canaveral for tomorrow’s launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (en route to the International Space Station). This @NASA follower will be glued to her TweetDeck while simultaneously watching the NASA cable channel, allowing the 10 year old inside of her who dreamed of going to Space Camp to vicariously experience a real shuttle launch.

“I think it’s exciting that this is generating more interest in space exploration and certainly interest in the last few missions of the shuttle,” said STS-129 mission specialist Bobby Satcher in a preflight news conference. “It’s bringing on the next generation who like to communicate in this kind of way and form their social networks this way. I’m excited that there are a lot of people who are twittering that will be following the mission.”

Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon, is actually pulling tweeting double-time for Atlantis’ mission as he posts updates as Astro_Bones and ZeroG_MD. Crewmate Leland Melvin twitters as @Astro_Flow. Two astronauts currently onboard the International Space Station already twitter- Jeff Williams is @Astro_Jeff and Nicole Stott is @Astro_Nicole.

Utah Pulse Social Media Minute

I was a guest featured writer today over at Utah Pulse for their Social Media Minute. It was an expanded version of my Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media Marketing found below.  This weekly segment (every Friday) is very helpful and written by various members of the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City. I recommend it to anyone who wants to stretch their SMM muscles or try new ideas!