This is a guest post by Garrett Ira, a digital marketing strategist who blogs at garrettira.com.
Over the last few years, just about everyone has given their two cents on how to “do social media” the right way. You know what I’m talking about: connect with your audience, add value, it’s about relationships, and all the other advice we hear over and over.
Something has happened that few are ready to admit: companies have gotten much better at social in 2011. Yes, there are still plenty of companies doing it terribly, but if you compare the present day to two years ago, there’s a huge difference.
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We can discuss how successful companies are using social media but it will be better to hear it from them, specially when it comes to small business.
I’m always concerned about small business because there is a huge difference in what it takes to be successful. When brands run online campaigns they’re usually backed up by a juicy number of ad impressions or other kind of support. Just a few days ago a friend asked me how we were able to get 100k Likes on a Facebook page so fast, I responded “they have a huge TV campaign”. His face filled with disappointment…
Point is, small business goes out there to fight with a stick. Guerrilla style. Most small businesses have pretty depressing stories when it comes to finding any success online. They don’t have the budget, the resources or the knowledge.
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Should you start spending time on StumbleUpon now that reports claim it represents more than 50% of the social media traffic and has passed Facebook to the #1 spot?
Not really. Let’s take a second to understand if StumbleUpon can really send you more traffic, what kind of traffic and I’ll also give you 3 quick tips to help you increase traffic to your site.
What, you thought StumbleUpon was dead?
StumbleUpon is very much alive. In March 2011 Mashable reported 15 million users and new signups of around 500k per month. Those are huge numbers, how many services do you know that get half a million signups per month?
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No, I’m not crazy. I’m not here to say you should ignore social media and I’m certainly not here to say you should stop reading blogs about social media.
This post is actually social media advice, one that you probably don’t expect. Not from a social media blog.
Learning About Social Media
I remember a few years back, I had started my company with no experience at all. I mean no management, marketing, sales… you get it, no experience. As you can imagine it didn’t take much to realize that to make sales (and bring some profit) I had two options, I can push or I can pull. In other words, I can chase business or I can attract business. That’s why I decided to focus on Marketing and Sales and outsource the other stuff.
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Content is no longer King. It has become a minimum requirement to do anything online. It’s expected.
What really makes a difference in the blogosphere today is a good set of skills to promote that awesome content you craft week after week. This is something I have emphasize in numerous occasions here at SocialMouths, if you have something amazing to share, something that can affect people’s lives, you are responsible for putting that awesome sauce in front of the right audience.
Last week in San Jose, Costa Rica, after 2 days of intense learning at a private marketing conference in which I also had to present, I’ve decided to take Friday to empty my brain, enjoy the beautiful weather and do nothing. Let the day take me wherever… Pura vida!
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This is a guest post by Srini Rao from The Skool of Life
A few days ago I was at work crafting a high level social strategy that will go beyond the Flightster blog and really enable us to take advantage of social media in a way that really allows us to understand our customers. I’ve come up with literally hundreds of ideas over the course of the last year, some of which have been implemented and others which have been put on hold.
Over the last week I’ve been able to condense my work into 3 core ideas for an effective social media strategy, both on a personal level and a corporate level.
Phase 1: Build
Let’s consider the social media presence of an individual or company as a blank canvas which we intend to turn into a masterpiece. Before any social media efforts will have an impact it’s essential to build your personal or company assets. Assets can be built across multiple social media platforms.
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Influence was one of the most used and abused words of 2010. I probably contributed with my share too.
But it seems like lately everywhere you turn there is a discussion about it, either to redefine the term, to analyze how it should be measured or simply to say that Klout Scores are not relevant.
Let’s face it, Klout has been under fire for the last few weeks. Then you’re not helping yourself when you come out and say that Justin Bieber is more influential than the Dalai Lama, Barak Obama or Lady Gaga (I think Gaga deserves the top spot). But let’s stop right here, bear with me for a second to explain where I’m going with this and make my point. This is a short post.
Should I Not Pay Attention To Klout Then?
I’m not here to recommend you should or shouldn’t use Klout or to question their formula, Justin Bieber is probably more influential than Obama these days anyways. The concern to me is how we use this score, I think it is a fine metric as a marketing tool for your personal brand and I can even see it as some kind of social proof, you know, another counter on your sidebar. But we should not be looking at it as to measure how much influence we really have.
Let’s Step Back For A Second…
According to the dictionary, Influence is the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.
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This is a guest post by Zac Grace of 
