It started out as a typical day on the Interwebz….

Wake up, check email, get on Twitter, and then head on over to Facebook. I had to know what all of my connections were up to and what was new in the world. Where else do you get everything in one place anyways? So here I am scrolling through my news feed when I see a post from my favorite hockey team, the St. Louis Blues regarding their journey to clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I immediately noticed something , being the Social Media geek that I am, that I found to be a pleasant surprise…

It’s been a couple of weeks and I’ve been wanting to blog about it, but let me be honest for a sec…. I forgot about it until yesterday. It happens from time to time, I am only human after all. This blog is inspired because of another post I’m working on for my business, KiMedia Strategies about the St. Louis Blues and their Social Media.

(You can read about that here)

How frustrating has it been on both ends to not be able to directly contact a brand page or have connections message you through your fanpage? If you’re like me, it’s been very frustrating. I hate putting email addresses out on the page for any spammer to swipe up and add to their newsletter and especially hated having to have my clients filter between social connections in their emails to forward what I needed. This could seriously take days and that’s one of the hundreds of reasons why they have me anyways, right?

So yeah… All of this is solved!

Let me introduce you to messaging brand pages on Facebook

First things first, make sure you’ve enabled messaging by visiting your admin panel

OK So let’s start with accessing your messages on your fanpage

Locate the Admin Panel button and click on that

You’ll notice the Admin Panel drops down and this is where you will see any messages that people have sent to your brand page.

Click to see more and respond.

It is really that simple!

OK so now let’s talk about sending a message to a brand page

Simply visit the page and locate the “Message” button under their cover photo and click on that.

Go ahead and select “Send a Message” and compose your message.

Now you simply wait to receive a response to your message. This will be located in the same place all of your messages are.

Will you be taking advantage of this feature as a fan or a page owner?

Our good friends at PEO Advantage want to know if you plan on participating in “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” and also want to give away 3 $25 Visa gift cards. It’s super simple to enter, but you gotta do it quickly because the contest ends at midnight!

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Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Scam Hits The Interwebz

Pinterest is a very visual Social Media platform where users share images of food, clothes, drinks, things they want, places they wish to visit along with thousands of other things. People share without thinking because the picture catches their eye. Unfortunately this could pose to be problematic because of the jerks out there that have to take advantage of a good thing.

Today as I was pinning as usual I came across a pretty sweet image that explained the difference in coffee beverages, like how much milk goes into a cappuccino, or water in an Americano etc…

I clicked the image because I wanted to re-pin it, but it took me to this landing page instead

I honestly was fooled. I stared at this page for about 30 seconds wondering why I hadn’t heard of this scavenger hunt and how awesome of an idea it actually was. I then looked at the url (pinteressts.com/Pinterest-Scavenger-Hunt/) and realized it was NOT Pinterest.

I then hovered over one of the prizes to see where it would actually lead me. Definitely not to a Pinterest link :/

If you happen to see a Pinterest Pin that leads to a contest that claims to be endorsed by Pinterest, check the landing page URL and the URL when you hover. Someone always has to ruin a good thing, huh?

Conclusion

This contest is not being run by Pinterest. Pinterest is not running any sort of scavenger hunt, please pin safely!

Having a social media campaign go viral is every marketer’s dream. However, not all

marketers grasp the concept of viral campaigns or what makes content really sharable.

If you hope to have your content go viral, there are a few key things you must
understand and incorporate into your social media strategy.

Write Unique Content

You’ve heard this before I’m sure, but this rather obvious viral tip is worth repeating.
The Internet is a crowded and extremely noisy place. How will your message be heard
above the din? By spreading it through unique content that engages the reader and
adds value to the discussions within your industry.

Yeah, yeah, but how do you write unique content that engages your audience? Two
words: Be yourself. You are unique, as are the opinions, life experiences, quirks and
everything else that makes you human. Use all of you within your content and tell a
compelling story that grabs the reader and begs them to share it with others.

Make Sharing Easy

If you want your content to be shared, you have to make it easy for your audience to
share it. Don’t forget to include social buttons on your Website that allow readers to
add your content to their social accounts, such as Delicious, Reddit, Pinterest and
Google+1. Your readers aren’t just readers. They are brand ambassadors who will
spread your content for you and generate more traffic to your site.

Also, include an RSS feed on your blog. This ensures your readers will always be
notified when you have a new post. Get your readers to sign up to a monthly newsletter,
too. Having a subscriber list means traffic you can turn on and off when you want and
your subscribers are apt to forward your newsletters on to friends and family.

Market to the Right Crowd

Did you know women are more likely to help your social marketing campaign go viral?
At a recent social media event in London, it was noted that women are much more likely
to engage and interact with others while men are much more interested in giving their
opinions. (Uh, this is a recent discovery?) If you want your campaign to go viral, you’re
much better off tailoring it for the fairer sex.

The Oh-So-Sweet Retweet

Bloggers know how significant Twitter is in driving traffic. Getting your readers to
retweet your content is one of the most powerful forms of viral marketing out there;

with one click of a button, your brand and message are spread to thousands of new
followers.

So what’s the secret to getting Tweets retweeted? First, compelling headlines that
focus on the reader and contain language that is clear and simple to understand tend
to be retweeted. Also, tweets that contain links within them are 70% more likely to be
retweeted.

Finally, a well-mannered call to action is one of the best ways to get a tweet retweeted.
It has been documented that the word “please” is one of the words most often found in
the title of a retweet. Your mother was right, mind your manners if you want to go viral.

Getting your social media campaign to go viral isn’t rocket science – it’s simply a matter
of caring enough about your audience to create content that’s so great, people have no
choice but to share it.

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
- Albert Einstein

Whether you’re a business owner or an employee, we all get uninspired from time to time. There are days here and there where I get overwhelmed with business. I pay more attention to the things that don’t matter and forget about those that do. I forget about the qualities that make my company and my strategies so great, and choose to become consumed with the negativity of others. This doesn’t happen often, especially now that I’ve found the best ways to get around feeling like this.

Scenario 1

Competitors  begin copying my company strategies.

What I used to do

I used to get so upset that it would consume my day. My attitude would be negative and I would be grumpy.

What I do now

I take it as a compliment. If a competitors wishes to follow in my company’s footsteps, that means we’re not only doing something right, but that we are ahead of them, right?

Scenario 2

Feeling the dreaded “day in/ day out” syndrome. That feeling that you’re constantly doing the same things over and over again can get extremely boring.

What I used to do

Take a nap…. Seriously, I would go sleep or watch TV and then take a nap. That seemed to clear my mind and relax me.

What I do now

I go to the gym, go for a walk, call a friend, put on some upbeat music, but most importantly… I look at the list of goals I have hanging in my office and remember that some days will be boring, some days wont be as adventurous as others, but other days will be so amazing that those boring days wont even be memorable.

Scenario 3

People are talking negatively about you and your company.

What I used to do

I used to get extremely worried thinking that this is happening. It’s always someone within my industry and it would bother me. I’d think I was doing something wrong.

What I do now

I realized I was doing everything right. When people within your industry take the time out of their day to Tweet or blog about something you or your company is doing with a negative spin you should feel honored that you have caught their eye. You’re on their radar and they see you as a threat. Seriously, I’ve been torn apart in blogs and Tweets because of WHERE I’ve Tweeted from, what I Tweet about and who I Tweet with.  Be proud, smile and keep kicking ass and NEVER let this bother you.

What ways do you stay inspired throughout the day?

Whether it’s lack of money in the marketing budget or lack of patience to see success, too many businesses give up on their Social Media campaigns without giving them not only time, but the creativity deserved to watch them flourish. Do you know any companies like this? Is your company one of them?

I can honestly say that I’ve had a few clients that have paused or shut down their campaigns because they just didn’t understand what was going on. They didn’t understand that by monitoring the Internet we were able to see who was talking positively or negatively about the brand. They also didn’t understand the effects of shutting down or pausing campaigns.

What Could Happen When You Pause Your Campaigns

1. Connections that you’ve engaged with for months will eventually stop mentioning your brand if you’re not responding back.
2. Depending on how long you paused your campaigns could depend on how long it will take to get them back to where they were when the campaigns were paused.
3. Your brand that used to be ahead of the curve Online with Social Media quickly becomes the follower instead of the leader.
4. People unfollow accounts on Twitter that are not active. There are apps for that and people use them.
5. You’re completely lost when you decide to start your campaigns again.

What Could Happen When You End Your Campaigns

1. Ending your campaigns means you are no longer monitoring your brand and protecting it on the Social Web. This means when people are talking about your brand, you’re no longer listening which means you’re no longer responding.
2. Your brand quickly stops being seen as a leader on the Social Web making it easy for your competitors to slide in and scoop up any connections that looked to you for guidance.
3. The number of unique eyeballs coming back to your website quickly begin to decrease.
4. If people can’t find you Online, they may not find you Offline.
5. In a year or so you’ll decide to try it again, and by then everyone your brand used to engage with has probably moved on…. Time to rebuild.

In Conclusion

It wouldn’t be the end of the world if you quit or paused your Social Media campaigns, but it would make marketing your brand a lot more difficult. Social Media is fun, social and most of all… always moving and always changing. If you think you need to give up, maybe you just need a new strategy?!

Consult with a Social Media Strategist or Social Media company. Maybe money isn’t the issue, maybe it’s time… Time you don’t have to put into running a campaign. Either way, before you quit, shake things up… Step outside your marketing comfort zone, be unique and engaging!

… for one hour on March 31, 2012 and I encourage, no… I challenge you to do the same.

A good friend of mine is hosting the “March Madness Game Time Recipe Contest” on Pinterest until next week. It’s a fun and easy contest where you could potentially win a $50 gift card to Williams-Sonoma simply for pinning your favorite recipe and adding the hashtag #MMTropik to the description of the pin.

I was explaining this to a friend. It seems simple enough to me, but for many, “pinning” isn’t second nature which is why I want to show everyone exactly how to pin from a website so they can all enter the #MMTropik contest on Pinterest.

Add the Pin Button to Your Browser

You can also visit the page below here

Find the Site you Want to Pin From

Pinning From the Website

1. Highlight the wording you wish to use (if you choose to do so)
2. Press the browser “pin” button. (Mine is located in the top right area of my browser)

Selecting The Image

Select the image you want to use for this pin.

Pin the Pin to Pinterest

This is also where you would make sure to add #MMTropik to the description, categorize it and click “Pin”

Your Pin is Ready for All to See

Interested in entering the #MMTropik Recipe Contest on Pinterest?

Check out this post! (and this one too!)

Hey guys! My good friend’s company, Tropik Media is having a contest on Pinterest that I wanted to share with all of you.

This contest will take place on Pinterest and YOU could potentially win a $50 gift card to Williams-Sonoma.

It’s super simple to enter, and even easier if you’re already using Pinterest and have a favorite game day recipe. That’s right, a game day recipe for March Madness! Simply find your favorite game day recipe either on the Interwebz and pin it…. Before you actually pin it, make sure you include the hashtag #MMTropik to the description so they can track your pin and get your entry! 

The hashtag #MMTropik IS YOUR ENTRY! If you forget this, they will not know that you have entered this contest.

Visit OFFICIAL contest post

Bonus: Share this on Twitter for an additional entry!

Contest ends Thursday April 6 and the winner will be announced on the 7th!

New to Pinterest? Check out the following posts that will help get you started.

You Might Want To Jump on the Pinterest Bandwagon

Be a Pinterest Power User