Design, Coding, SEO and Social Media Marketing, WordPress & Facebook

When pitching Social Media Optimization to a potential client, I start to get really excited thinking about the endless potential for success in any of the social networks I recommend. I know how quickly this expert can become a thought leader on Twitter, how soon she will find her target audience on Facebook, and how she is an ideal candidate for a series of tutorial videos on her own YouTube channel. Every individual in the world is unique, so if they have something valuable to share then there has to be a special niche for them, an audience in need of their brand of expertise. As long as they are provided with the tools to access the masses, they can stand and deliver. But how do you convince a client that they not only have what it takes to thrive in the social mediasphere, but that social media will deliver a significant ROI, as long as they commit to sufficient participation in their desired communities?

Proving that social media is worth the time and effort is what so many SMCs are trying to do every day, and I have seen many “formulas” for success that attempt to package a social media campaign that will work for everyone. But this is precisely the misleading sentiment that threatens to give social media a bad name. There is no formula for success, although there are many helpful tips and experts out there who are giving excellent advice to newcomers trying to learn the ropes. Most of them understand the politics of social media since they have witnessed both the successes and the failures over the short life span of most social media sites.

On a quick tangent, I will share a list here of the most helpful experts out there that I have found so far:
Chris Brogan
David Meerman Scott
Hubspot
Ignite Social Media
Mashable

I read this blog post from Ignite Social Media the other day, and I liked what they had to say about being the first one to do something. The second time around will never be as novel and powerful as the first. It makes perfect sense to me, but some people are still trying to be copycats out there. I am always impressed when I see fresh and innovative ideas in the social networking world because they usually succeed. The element of NEW is always alluring, even if the service or product being promoted is not stellar. Remember the Skittles/Twitter stunt that caused the whole Twittersphere (and beyond) to at least think about the colorful candy for a day, even if they didn’t go out and buy Skittles because of it? Although, I don’t think that I would personally encourage a client to do something that drastic simply for attention, with no actual value for their customers behind the façade of fantastic marketing. I believe that you should find a way to capture the audience’s attention AND offer them something useful at the same time. That is the trick to really big social media movements.

The great thing about good ideas is that they can inspire even better and yet still different ideas. So following trends in marketing and promotion is the best way to come up with unique concepts of your own, as long as you don’t try to copy the good ideas you find.

David Meerman Scott’s book World Wide Rave has a list of “Rules” to help you start your own rave. He has some great stories about amazing successes in the world of social media…how one woman reached over 350 million Harry Potter fans by telling just 7 influential people about a new theme park in production. DM Scott tells readers that in order to have similar “raves” of their own, they have to “lose control” of their messages, content and brand by sharing it all for free online. This is good advice, but it still requires that we come up with our own unique and compelling ways to share content via sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Social Media is an arena where true innovators can shine, and where the rest of us can watch in awe as they reach millions of customers and fans at a time. We can learn from them, but in order to join them at the top, we really have to break away from the pack and find a different way to share.