On my part, after reading about the campaign on Joe Pulizzi’s blog, I eagerly sought out the videos, rewatched both commercials, and scoured the blogosphere for more coverage. By the end of the day I had not only further publicized the campaign via facebook and twitter; I had physically told at least three people about it. That’s right, actual word of mouth!

But while the blogosphere, twitterverse, and facebookalaxy (too much?) were all buzzing about Old Spice, one burning question plagued every marketer. Will this actually translate to sales? Well, ladies and gentleman, the numbers are in.

Since the campaign launched in February, Old Spice sales have been on the rise. Brandweek reported that Old Spice sales rose 55% over the past three months, and 107% in the last month alone (stats published by Nielsen). Though it can only officially be called a correlation, I think it’s safe to consider this campaign a triumph in social media marketing. Mashable’s Stan Schroeder went as far as calling it “the archetype of a successful social media campaign,” and that was before any sales figures were released.

Will anyone be able to replicate this lightning-in-a-bottle campaign? Probably not.  There is a huge novelty element to this strategy that can’t be undervalued.  Old Spice was the first brand to tap into its social network in such a direct and, let’s face it, hilarious way. How then, can Old Spice’s success apply to you and your company? How can you translate it into your own content marketing efforts? First of all: don’t copy it. A lot of people are going to try and copy this campaign, and the public will know exactly what you’re up to.

Old Spice Guy is just one man, albeit an incredibly handsome one. He couldn’t possibly address more than a small fraction of Old Spice’s ever-increasing followers on twitter. But the mere possibility that he might led thousands of web users to jump on board and tweet their little hearts out.  In the same vein as the Creators Project, which continues to draw in hundreds of facebook fans daily, Old Spice offered the mere possibility of something great. In this case, being personally addressed before millions of online viewers… by an incredibly handsome man in a bath towel.

That is a tactic you can use. Provide the possibility of something incredible, but keep it limited. Make a demand for it. If you don’t know where to start in terms of devising that inspired must-have reward, why not ask your customers? What do THEY want? Tap into them as a resource, and then implement their ideas so they know they’re being listened to. Whatever plan of action you take, it should single out customers/readers/etc as individuals that are uniquely valued. It can be done at random, or maybe as a reward for loyal followers.

And if you can think of an angle that is really appropriate for your customers, why not create something that they will actually enjoy? Your marketing content should provide useful information for your clients, but you can also have a bit of fun with it. If you’re not sure you can pull it off,  consider hiring writers to create the kind of smart, punchy content that just might get your social network buzzing. After all, who doesn’t need a bit of light, funny, engaging fluff now and again?

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of http://www.shoppingblog.com/blog/3291015

An Alternative to Cold Calling

In the past, a blind e-mail to a name in a large directory was the standard way to source new work. With Twitter, it’s now easier to gain direct access to those same people without a filter. Responding to their tweets through @ replying and re-tweeting is your in, and building your own informative feed that blends your current work with your unique voice is your sell. It shows your work and unique personality, something lost in a one-shot e-mail.

Build Your Sources/Employers

Sharing your current work through your twitter feed serves a two-fold purpose. It shows that you’re busy (and reliable), and showcases the topics you cover. If you’ve done your due diligence connecting with editors, content managers and marketers in position to hire freelancers, they know you’re out there and more importantly, know how to connect with you. As well, connecting with other freelancers in your industry is a great way to gather new sources and information for your current projects by asking pointed questions and responding in kind.

Utilizing a few minutes of your time a day building a network in 140 characters or less could yield work and sources down the road.

Lou Perseghin lives in Providence, RI and works for a non-profit managing volunteers, recruiting members and handling marketing efforts.

Image from media.giantbomb.com

Even Chris Brogan,  an undisputed master of social media,  admits to a few pitfalls as his operations have grown. “My first attempt at managing my inbox was a failure because I wasn’t very human about it,” says Chris.  And just by admitting his failure, he shows how great he is at being, well, human.

“In every case that you build tools and process into your business,” says Chris,  “work out how you’ll keep it a human business: relationship-minded, sustainable, and friendly.“

Wise words for any budding entrepreneur. But automated responses aren’t always the culprit. In an effort to gain credibility and come off as a no-nonsense professional, you may want to stay all business. Dry.  Formal.  Never erring from your corporate message. But social media in particular seems to reject that approach. In our last blog post, Dawn Alcott explained that heavy hitters like Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and J. Money succeed because “they aren’t afraid to be themselves.” Platforms like twitter and facebook provide the means to establish a friendly face for even the largest corporation. Take advantage of these faculties. Crack a joke. Share a (relevant) anecdote. Sometimes all it takes is an appropriately placed “?!?” or even, dare I say it, a telling emoticon to show that yeah, you’re a person. A person who, apparently, when necessary, can  curl their mouth into the shape of an S.

This isn’t a new concept by any means. But it remains relevant whether you are a fledgling company preparing to hire your first employee, or a multinational conglomerate. If you are struggling to establish not just your company’s identity, but its personality, keep trying. Emote. Add a conversational tone to your auto-responses. Or, if either a) you’re a bit on the bland side yourself or b) you really don’t have the time to be human, try hiring writers (who tend to be bottomless pits of personality) for your content marketing needs.

And If you absolutely have to use  robots, why not use Wall-E as a model? Develop robots that will bring grown men to tears!

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

image courtesy of http://www.hooversbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/sadrobot.jpg

Thank god we still have blogs though, right? No character limits here, just sweet sweet freedom to share our musings with the world. Not so, says Chris Garrett in a recent post for Copyblogger.  Brevity is a virtue for blogs and tweets alike. If you blog for your business, be sure to deliberate over each post just as you would over a tweet.  You may have successfully piqued your followers’ interest on Twitter and lured them to the bulk of your content, but don’t assume you’ve won them over just because they’re on your  site.  Each blog post should show that you value your readers’ time. That’s not to say you can’t indulge in a few linguistic flourishes, but make sure that you have a clear point—that you have something of use to share with your readers.

Successful content marketing should benefit producer and consumer alike.  Blogging on its own can be a massive time commitment, but effective, succinct, well-edited blogging is even more so. If you aren’t sure you’re up to the task, or as Chris Garrett puts it, you are just “too lazy to write less,” you may want to consider outsourcing your content marketing efforts by hiring writers who have the time, energy, and expertise to tackle your blogging needs.

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of teamowens313.files.wordpress.com

Even if you must hire a freelancer or pay an SEO writer a little extra to maintain your social media presence, the payback you get when these sites are properly maintained is worth the investment. What’s the best way to think of social media in today’s market is to view Twitter, Facebook, third party article marketing sites and other avenues? Do you view them as supplementals to your main site? Are they an end to themselves? Somewhere in between?

Social media sites are really just channels. CNN doesn’t have a single channel—they offer several stations broadcasting different content across their network. When you set up Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, you’re doing the same thing on a smaller scale. Each one of these sites is a channel you can use to broadcast the brand, your message, and your products.

That’s why it’s so important to use consistent branding across all your channels. Your visual identity is an important part of the brand, and social media is used as another way to get that identity out to the public.

Joe Wallace has been a writer/editor since 1992 and is always open to fun new ways to market online businesses. In addition to running Freelance-Zone.com, he blogs about music at Turntabling.net and runs a small press specializing in snarky t-shirts.

Image from socialnomics.files.wordpress.com

Hiring freelance writers to handle social media requires educating the writer on the products or services being offered, the voice of the company’s marketing and the language used by the target market. For most social media campaigns there is not a need to go deep into detail on the specifics surrounding the industry being promoted. Freelance writers see the process of learning about a company’s products or services as part of the writing assignment and expect to have materials and information presented when they begin the writing project. The writer is also likely to request copies of other current marketing materials to understand the voice the company uses in marketing and other online content to convey their message. The specific language used by the customer may come either from the company, a branding research department or research by the writer themselves.

Resources writers can use for research:

1. Blogs
2. Social Media
3. Keyword research tools
4. Forums
5. Competitor websites
6. Complimentary company websites
7. Customers’ websites

As with any other content, keyword use is important in social media content creation. Social media freelance writers can incorporate the client’s keywords to help with the overall search engine optimization strategy.

Jennifer Gniadecki loves to write. You can find her on any given day writing lists, blog posts, articles, assignments, outlines or fleshing out story ideas on her laptop.

Image from watblog.com

Have a strategy

From the basic purpose of the account to the keywords to be used in Tweets, have a strategic plan before the account is even opened.

Have continuity

Maintain a regular tweeting schedule. Once you have decided on the schedule, be sure to stick to it even if you tweet more often than the strategy says.

Have goals

Whether to drive a certain amount of traffic to your web site, sell clearance items or gain additional followers, have goals set to gauge the success of the campaign. If you don’t know what you are shooting for, you aren’t going to hit anything.

Engage in conversation

No matter what strategy you choose to employ, take the time to have conversations with your followers. People who follow you on Twiiter are likely to have followers who may also be interested in what you do. Having a conversation with your followers will alert their followers to who you are. So spread the word!

Jennifer Gniadecki loves to write. You can find her on any given day writing lists, blog posts, articles, assignments, outlines or fleshing out story ideas on her laptop.

Image from dailycardinal.com

Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page—and that’s just the beginning. Twitter has proven to be compelling in a variety of ways. With @anywhere, web site owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.

With recent reports that Facebook has more web site visits than Google and drives 44 percent of social sharing on the web, Twitter’s stepping up to the plate by integrating itself into the rest of the web. Part of the reason Facebook has such monumental numbers is the ease with which its users can share information (you can record a video onto someone’s wall without ever leaving it or doing much more than pushing a button). Facebook has even surpassed email as an information sharing platform, probably because it’s so much less exclusive; when you share something on Facebook, you do so recognizing the possibility that it will be viewed by others. Google attempted this with Buzz, but instead the buzz was all about Google’s failure to allow its users to incorporate the social platform into their own lives—err—email. Hopefully Twitter’s been paying attention to the latest social developments, successful and failed, and their further integration into the web will allow Twitter skeptics or hesistants to join the conversation.

It’s easy for most people—even inexperienced ones—to follow the instructions on a site like Twitterfeed and set up their blogs for automated social media updates. But what if you’re working with an older content management system or one that hasn’t been customized for your existing needs? Could you run into a roadblock or two along the way?

If you’ve been trying to work with third-party products like Twitterfeed or Ping.FM and can’t seem to get it working properly (or have serious issues trying to reconcile your existing blog setup) you might need to give serious consideration to upgrading to a more modern website setup or paying an expert to evaluate your system.

For services like Twitterfeed, the problem might be as simple and inexpensive to fix as properly configuring an RSS feed, but if your problems with third-party applications like these are just symptoms of a larger problem, now’s the time to invest in a major upgrade or fix. Non-tech savvy business owners are often intimidated by simple processes like upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress or doing a content migration from an outdated version of Drupal to Wordpress.

These procedures are quite simple for experienced webmasters. If you’ve been limping along on a very outdated version of a content management system like Drupal or Wordpress, consider hiring a freelancer to troubleshoot and advise you on tech upgrades. You’ll be glad you did.

Joe Wallace has been a writer/editor since 1992 and is always open to fun new ways to market online businesses. In addition to running Freelance-Zone.com, he blogs about music at Turntabling.net and runs a small press specializing in snarky t-shirts.

Image from beaufortsc.net