My quick notes from Izeafest 2009. This fantastic event was full of info relevant, actionable information. Sorry for the formatting issuess -- apparently the "notebook" view doesn't translate so well to slideshare.
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Izeafest: Notes on Social Media
1. Izeafest 2009 – Notes from @prtini
Ted Murphy – Keynote
• Brands propel business – driving traffic back to main site
• Traffic driven by conversations and bonds from conversations
you’re having
• Brand Promise
o Personal branding examples:
Problogger – being useful, educational
Ted Murphy – fun loving, running, crazy, leader,
tweeter, etc
Gary Vee – energy, “crush it”
o Need a personal branding statement
Gary Vee: Crush It
Ted: Disruption with a smile
Mike: Own your 30 lines.
• Identity
o Name
Proper name vs. persona
Things to consider: domains, twitter profile,
Facebook page, YouTube
Goal: Own the search for your name.
o Design
Logo is the single unifier
Common logo mistakes:
2. Designing a logo if you’re not a designer
Using clipart as your logo
Using a photo of yourself
Creating a logo that only works in full color
Photos: “Quality is your friend”
Hire a professional
Capture your personality
Get the rights for publication in all media
Blog – needs to be as professional as everything else
you do
Example: The Pioneer Women
Common mistakes:
• Using a common template
• Designing a blog if your not a designer
• Going crazy with display ads
Link content with display advertising
Secret: Coordinate
o Communication style
Be consistent with your tone
Define your look
o Embodiment
Be just as awesome in real life
• Contribution
o How you make a difference
o Contribute things you are passionate about and good at
o Primary and secondary (job, talent, etc)
• Promotion
o Think of personal brand like a business
o Invest in yourself
• Monetization
4. ←3 steps to authority:
• Viral content
o Value – What others perceive as valuable
o Focus – know what you’re trying to teach or communicate,
and stay laser-focused on that message. Otherwise, you’re
attracting bad copy.
Start with the end in mind
Don’t stray just for traffic – it’s a self-defeating exercise
o Headlines – in an attn environment, a unique, ultra-specific
promise of valuable can’t-miss content
If they think they’ll read it later, they won’t. They need
to be drawn in immediately
o Hooks – attract attention and increase engagement with a
unique approach
Don’t pander to everyone with your hook
• Social media content promotion
o “Nothing spreads on its own unless it does”
o Other blogs – create relationships with other bloggers in your
niche by participating in the comments; do something for
them first before asking for a link
o Social media content hubs – traffic distribution hubs driven by
voting and bookmarking (Digg, Delicious, Reddit,
Stumbleupon, etc)
ZenHabits built his blog off of this
You’re after links – they bring direct traffic
Was primary focus 2 years ago; now Brian doesn’t even
focus on it
o Social networking – build and leverage your network (e.g.,
Twitter)
Choose 1 platform and own it, build and build, work it.
Brian chose Twitter (doesn’t see value from FB). A lot of
blog content shared on Twitter is marketing-related
5. Got fans on the blog? Drive to Twitter … and vica
versa.
“From a pure content marketing standpoint,
retweets are what you live for”
Find valuable content that fits into 140 characters
– anything related to your core purpose. It’s
about value.
• SEO
o Search engines love a lot of content
o It’s the last step. It doesn’t need to be done while you’re
creating the content.
Create the best headline that will attract readers
o 4 factors:
Clean code
Killer content
SEO copywriting – the right keywords in the right place
Titles, URLs (shorter=better), subheads, internal
links
“Writing for people or writing for search engines?
People use search engines. You’re always writing
for people.”
Use keywords and synonyms in subheads
Don’t feel bad about repeating yourself. But,
always link to previous article. Then, you’re in
control of the anchor text
User experience
Design matters
o Try to get keywords right in the beginning. You want people
to link to you using the right anchor text
o 58% of SEO has nothing to do with the text on the page
• “I don’t care about traffic; I care about subscribers.”
←Resources:
• Google “viral copy”
• Google “authority rules”
6. SEO (@sugarrae and @graywolf) 03/10/2009
20:35:00
←
←Tips about SEO:
• Write for words people will search
o Those need to be in the title tags
• When blogging, you either want categories OR tags to categorize
o Index those, not the date
o Funnel all links to one section
o Pick which search engines will index and block the rest
• .edu and .gov sites carry more weight
• If Google doesn’t value any of your links, you need to “get noticed”
– create some “link bait” or star power
o Need to get trusted authority
• The point of search engines is to help people who don’t know who
you are – not people who already know you.
• Don’t Make Me Think – the more questions you make a user ask,
the more likely they’re going to leave
• SPAM: “Sites Posted Above Mine”
• Custom Query String: Wordpress plug in that shows specific
number of categories/pages
Yoast.com – best SEO plugins for Wordpress out there.
Also offers an e-newsletter
7. Personal Branding on Twitter (@prsarahevans)
Heather Biddulph
←
←What works?
• Hedgehog concept – (Good to Great) Be the best at something.
• Two rules:
o Build, build, build
o What’s in it for me?
• The best time to build a network is when you don’t need one.
←
←Building a brand via:
• Trust
• Fan base
• Credibility
• Niche
• Expert
←
←What to share:
• Tools and news
• Personality
• Interaction
←
←Developing a strategy:
• Who are you/your brand?
• Who do you want to communicate with?
• What do you want to accomplish?
←What’s your umbrella?
• Increase network & personal connections
• Improve relations between PR, bloggers and journos
• Better the nonprofit world
If something doesn’t fall under the umbrella, don’t do it. The
worst thing you can do is make a promise you can’t keep.
←
←Never underestimate the value of a strong email distribution list
←
8. Social Media Promotion 03/10/2009 20:35:00
←
←Lucretia Pruitt @geekmommy
←David Binkowski @dbinkowski
←Chris Heuer @chrisheuer
←Wendy Piersall @emom
←Warren Whitlock @warenwhitlock
←
←Key takeaways:
• Social media is very situational. Want to do things right in the way
the market approves of.
• We want to buy from people we know, like and trust
• What we’re doing now is no different than what good businesses
have been doing forever.
• Do you need a personal brand?
o Yes, if you need to develop business, be a brand ambassador,
etc
o No, if you’re building an affiliate site or some other content-
driven site
• Personal brand is a nice buzz word. It’s your reputation. If you’re
trying to develop a brand that isn’t who you are, that’s a problem.
• “Don’t become somebody you’re not, just to fit the personal brand
you designed.”
• Best way to get noticed: Organically and naturally
• Get out and meet people.
• Find out what cause people care about
o Taking traditional community relations online
• Promote other people. What can I do to give to help other people?
If you’re not getting enough, give more.
• Look, listen, learn, join, lead. Get prepared to be the leader. Earn
trust over time.
• The pitch doesn’t matter. Who are you? Why should I trust you?
• Use the su.pr – the Stumbleupon link shortner
• When the telephone started, people dictated what they wanted
said. When email originated, people thought they didn’t have time
for that either.
• Comes down to innovation. Find the unmet need.
9. • Not about your time commitment, it’s about your commitment over
time.
• Is a newsletter part of social media? Definitions don’t matter. Chris
says it’s media that can be shared, so sure. Social media isn’t the
object of the tool – it’s what we do with it.
• Test & learn
• Reach matters, but feedback is critical. Qualitative.
• Time of the day: What’s the best?
o Su.pr will give you day parts – best time to tweet
o 8:30-9:15, around lunch and later in the day is best
o But, depends who you’re trying to reach. GNO is 9-11 p.m.
o Check Analytics and see when your peak is. That’s when you
should push your efforts.
o Top bloggers will follow the media cycle. Throw-away news:
Friday evening. Big news: Monday or Tuesday morning.
• Fail fast.
10. Influence (Aaron Brazell @technosailor) 03/10/2009
20:35:00
←
←How we deal with people impacts how we get things done
• It doesn’t matter if you’re a rock star or not – it’s not about you,
your celebrity
←
←There’s a difference between being a celebrity and influencer
• Celebrity will get you attention right now
• Influencer will get you attention long-term
←
←What’s the mark of an influencer?
• A person who is hungry – wants to know as much as they can about
the agenda, cause, etc
o No one cares about what you already know. You want to
know more.
o Not about what you can do – it’s about how much you want to
know.
• Create conversations, situations, environments that allow you to be
effective.
o Create environments where people want to know what you’re
saying
• Respond
o Big difference between response (thoughtful) and reaction
(knee-jerk)
If you want to be an influencer, you can’t react. You
have to respond.
o Allies – you have to build alliances with people. You can’t do it
on your own.
o Quality
o Transparency
Do what you say, say what you do.
People know what they’re going to get, where you’re
coming from
Transparency build trust
Brand is not a logo or a look. Brand = trust.
o Charisma influences people.
11. Know how to talk to people
o Unsung
People who just do what they do because it makes a
difference. They’re not out to be a hero
Love what they do … and they just do it
o Inspire
←
←@1stmeritbank – Aaron had a problem with his bank. Complained on
Twitter, they responded. DMd him a couple times to follow up. They built
trust with Aaron by responding and following up with him.
http://technosailor.com/2009/07/10/first-mariner-bank-a-new-shining-star-
in-social-media-pr/
12. Navigating & Networking (@lizstrauss) 03/10/2009
20:35:00
←
←The Internet works the same way as real life, but with a slightly different
culture because we can’t see each other
←Be who you are – consistently
←
←If you want to get more people to come to your blog, be there. Be the
person behind the screen.
←
←Internet-famous is different than Oprah-famous
• There was never a perception of being able to reach Oprah
• Online, people expect to be able to reach you
←
←Evolution of a blogger
• Enthusiastic blogger
• Disillusioned learner – around 6-9 months
• “I’m a sham” – people talk to you like you’re an expert, but you
don’t think you are.
o Not true. Everyone brings something to the Internet.
←
←Be as positive on the “back channel” (DMs, emails) intercoms as you are
on the front channel (public tweets, messages)
←
←Not sure what your passion is? What are you always talking about? What
do people ask you for help with? What problem are you solving?
• Solve your problem for other people. Solve it for yourself first, then
be generous about solving it for other people.
←
←There’s a difference between helping people (for free) and “doing things”
(which should be for payment)
←
←Playing vs. playing for keeps
• If you don’t have a goal for your blog, get one.
• If you’re going to blog for business, play for keeps. Own it.
Leave space for the conversation – ask questions, invite guest-posters, etc
13. What Advertisers Want 03/10/2009 20:35:00
←
←Brett Bumeter @brettbum
←George Smith @georgegsmithjr
←John Andrews @katadhin
←Jeff Jaffe @jaffejuice
←Zena West @zenawest
←
←Advertisers aren’t sure what they want yet from bloggers
←
←Challenge: Thinking about new media with traditional media lenses
←
←As efficiency grows, as advertisers learn what’s effective in this case, you’ll
see bigger budgets
←
←Whether you have 2 people talking about something, or 200,000, it’s still a
conversation.
• Use blogs, twitter, etc to educate, provide customer service, give
product info
←
←From a big-brand perspective, how do you find the right bloggers?
• Assess the content strategy and consistency. Does that match up
with the brand?
• Connection, passion, not just about the traffic numbers
←
←Companies can’t outsource everything to PR, marcom firms. “If you want
to be involved in the social space, you have to participate.”
←
←Advertisers want to see quality themes – not just the basic, free templates
←
←The only currency that exists in the blogosphere is currency
←
←Sponsorship vs. advertisement
←
←Bring your community in on the program. If you’re reviewing a product,
ask for a second to give away to your readers.
←
14. ←Marketing is a commitment, not a campaign
←
←The mommy blogging concept works because moms (and dads) are the
portal into the home.
←
←When trying to show value as a potential advertising channel, use case
studies, results.
←
←If you’re asked to review something that you don’t like, keep the review
straightforward, simple. Offer suggestions. “Keep it above board.”
• Give at least three things that the company could have done better
• If you only give 5-star reviews, you’ll lose credibility
• If you’re offering a negative review, it’s nice to give your product
contact a heads up
• A product review is not an advertorial or an advertisement
• Consider using video for reviews
15. Chris Brogan 03/10/2009 20:35:00
Think of “you, the brand” like a 360-degree business
• The NASCAR-ification of the brand
• 1950-2006 advertising – stick a famous person next to a product
• Now: What are you willing to represent
←
←Jay-Z moved from music to businessman
←
←If you’re going to share yourself with other brands, blogs – bring it back to
your home base. Start to build your own equity
←
←Social media makes real things happen
• Print ads aren’t pulling, circulation is down – need to find new ways
of doing things
←
←Who’s my audience? The only difference between an audience and a
community is the way the chairs are facing
←
←Trade pubs are the only kinds of publications still making $$ because they
align with a very specific audience
• Find people who have a passion; better= find people with passion
and money
←Be everywhere.
• Odds are, you’re not commenting enough. Comment in heartfelt
way, not in ways that only serve your agenda
←Be helpful.
• Write about other people and what they can do with that info
• Give your content “handles” – give someone something they can
use and they’ll come back for more.
• Be aware. Not self-involved.
←Be the priest. Build the church.
• Make a movement happen. Be at the center – empower others to
do really good stuff.
• Make people feel like they’re on the inside
←Be there before the sale.
• It’s easier to sell on the inside, to people who know you.
←This is farming, not manufacturing. It’s a slower process.
16. ←Don’t be the SM person. SM person will get cut. And, it’s stands out apart
from the company, instead of being integrated fully into the business
←
←The DNA of Disruption
• Don’t wait for people to give you permission to do stuff
• Are you getting ideas from outside?
• Stop. Collaborate. And Listen.
• Can you be the fringe? Can you cut out other people’s messes?
←Take initiative. Just do.
• Start with a goal if you’re going to make a business out of it. Have
many paths to achieve the goal.
←Assess often.
←
←Don’t fall in love with your own idea so much that you don’t see another
way to do it.
←
←It’s not about the tools – it about connecting to other people.