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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Hoop.la: An Online Community Platform For Your Social Hub

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hoopla.logo.pngRecently, my good friend, Rosemary O’Neill, President of Social Strata, was good enough to grant me an interview about the most #RockHot name for a company solution I know — Hoop.la. We originally met via Social Slam, my used-to-be-favorite spring fling that is now defunct. I love to give her grief about her crazy Twitter handle (@rhogroupee) and for that she’s now affectionately called RoHo. In all seriousness, her company’s latest community application is pretty cool, and we’re sharing here in a Q&A that’s sure to get your juices flowing, so grab a spittoon.

What is a Hoop.la? Do you have to sing that?
First of all Jayme, I love the way you say “Hoop.la!”  Hoop.la is an online community application that integrates blog, forums, chat, calendar, and media/file uploads in an easy-to-use (and mobile-friendly) interface. It’s SaaS, so there’s no software to install, no plug-ins. Hoop.la was first released in 2010, and is currently supporting over 4,000 sites serving millions of page views every day.

Who would need this?
Well, we’ve got customers ranging from small non-profits using our free Hoop.la Spark plan to run their donor/volunteer communities all the way up to Pro Enterprise-level deployments for Rodale’s Runner’s World Magazine community. If you’re a business looking to create a social hub on your own website, and wanting to pull together your crazy array of social “outposts” (as Chris Brogan calls them), you might want to check out Hoop.la.

Do I have to give up my WordPress blog?
No. That’s the cool thing. Hoop.la is designed to be really flexible, so that you can turn off or on any of the modules (like blogging or chat) with the click of a button. We also offer import services, if you do decide to bring over your existing blog or forum content from another platform.

How can you fit Hoop.la in with the rest of your website?
You can easily make custom pages within Hoop.la that have any HTML you like. Also, there are built-in widgets that are embeddable on your existing site; so, for example, if you want to pop a widget that shows recent forum topics on your home page, you can do it with the click of a button. No geekery required. (However, if you’re feeling saucy, you can access the custom CSS to really tailor the look and feel.)

hoopla-splash-image.jpgHow is this better than just using a Facebook page?
Would you like to be earning SEO juice for yourself instead of Mark Zuckerberg? We definitely aren’t saying you don’t need Facebook; however, every business should have their own social “center of gravity” that’s under their direct control. With Hoop.la you own the data and you control the experience, period. We have lots of customers who are successfully cross-pollinating from their Facebook page to their Hoop.la site, making even more engagement opportunities.

Can I use it for private or internal communities too?
Definitely! Hoop.la is designed with really granular permissions, so you can keep the whole site public, or you can restrict certain features or forums, and you can even monetize certain activities with built-in premium memberships (no merchant account required). Long John Silver’s is using Hoop.la for its private, internal franchisee community.

Hoop.la is worth checking out, Jayme adds. Please do reach Roho aka Rosemary O’Neill at 206-283-5999 ext 106 for a demo.

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Soulati Media On The Street With @GiniDietrich

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Inkybee-Screen-Shot-PR.jpgLook at whose blog is rated #1 among 60 in the world for PR from Inkybee? (And, ahem, this blog right here is ranked 29!)

Ms. Gini Dietrich of SpinSucks fame and CEO of ArmentDietrich claims that top spot and to no surprise of mine. Gini has been rockin’ PR and social marketing blogging for nigh on seven years; in fact, Spin Sucks just had a birthday!

I had the distinct pleazhure of seeing my twin, the Gin Blossom, in Louisville where that guy, Mr. Social Media Explorer himself Jason Falls, invited us both to present.

You can see  Gini’s presentation on SlideShare here, and  you can see Jayme Soulati’s presentation, Savvier Social Media Across the Marketing Blend, on SlideShare here.

I could not resist grabbing her for a few minutes for a Soulati Media On The Street, and it will be your pleasure to hear the giggles roll as we share in our ‘raderie.

Enjoy my BFF! Man, do I love being behind the cam…

 

Soulati Media On The Street With Gini Dietrich

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The Happy Friday Series: Be The Biggest Fan of Another

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Credit: Jayme Soulati

Happy Friday! This is an essay on how to weave business in to social communication.

  • What if rather than writing a blog entirely focused on you, and sharing links on your Facebook page directing fans to your blog.
  • What if rather than using Twitter as a platform to pontificate.
  • What if rather than using Instagram to share pictures of your product.
  • What if rather than spending the majority of your time on social media trying to figure out the best way to get people to pay attention to your business.
  • What if you turned everything around?

It is interesting to note that when you spend all your time talking about yourself and how wonderful you are, you are essentially telling people that you are your own biggest fan!

And, that is embarrassing.

No Cares About You

The truth is, no one cares about you or what you have to say about yourself in a business or marketing context.

If this sums up your social efforts to this point: Please stop. Just stop.

Unfortunately you are more likely to become one of those people who “gave social media a shot” but claims “it didn’t work for me” than to see any level of success.

Consider this:

  • What if you took every last minute you have been using to promote your business socially and instead you became another’s biggest fan? Just think about that for a minute… what would this look like for you?
  • What if you wrote a blog post that featured a local business professional who had a complimentary product to yours?
  • What if your Facebook wall, Twitter timeline and Instagram feeds were flooded with endorsements for quality local businesses?
  • What if at every opportunity you tried to make someone else look good instead of shamelessly promoting yourself?

from Soulati.com takes every Friday to feature a new blogger or contributor in something she calls “The Happy Friday Series.” The whole goal is to offer her platform to another in an attempt to broaden their social reach. What a great idea!

A Story From Personal Experience

I “joined the conversation” in 2010 and began my social media experience by listening to conversations on Twitter for months before engaging.

In that time, I identified 2 things:

  • The people I liked following the most were those who added value to my timeline. They engaged with other local people, they shared information and were generally just all around approachable people.
  • The people I really didn’t like were the people who spammed my timeline with self-promoting garbage.

My initial engagement strategy was to follow my city’s hashtag and engage with at least two new people each day.

Then it came, the tweet that would get me hooked on social media for business:

“Hey, I am new to #YQR, can anyone please recommend a place where I can buy Italian Syrups for my coffees #HELP!

As a man who is passionate about his coffee, I knew just the place.

“Absolutely, you have to go to Ambassador Coffee, the owner is a great guy, they will take good care of you”

I then sent along a Google map, followed her on twitter, she followed me and that was that. Two days later, she hits me with:

“Thanks so much for your help, I went to Ambassador, they were great, really appreciate it”

I replied with a “no problem” and out.

Now why is that exciting?

Well, as a mortgage broker, the DM I received 2 weeks later was social proof that being a nice guy actually makes for good business strategy.

“Hey, my husband and I aren’t ready to buy a house now, but when we are, can you help us arrange our mortgage”?

How do you like that? Never once did I mention mortgages or business or anything else sales-y. She obviously read my twitter bio or clicked through to my website from my profile.

Six months later, I closed their [substantial] mortgage simply because I answered a tweet and recommended a local business.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that there is no value in content marketing. Actually I believe wholeheartedly that content marketing is the future of business communication.

Further to that… if good business communication is all about “people should do business with people they know, like and trust”. Ask yourself:

How are people getting to know, like and trust me?

Before you start throwing your own content out there, what if you developed an audience that actually wanted to hear what you had to say?

What if your social business strategy was to become a trusted source of information on every local business EXCEPT your own?

About The Author

is the principal broker for in Saskatchewan, Canada and the executive editor of the Jackson has a passion for marketing and carries weight in the Canadian mortgage and real estate industry. Jackson is a serial entrepreneur who is always looking for better ways to do things. His twitter bio reads: @kiltedbroker – I am wearing a kilt right now. I have consumed coffee today. Family Man. Innovator.

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Thank You Louisville Plus Savvier Social Media SlideShare

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Jayme-Soulati-presenting.jpgThe hospitality of the Louisville IABC chapter and the Louisville Digital Association knows no bounds.

At its 5th Marketing Summit, where I presented, the day was packed with a breadth of topics and the widest array of speakers I’ve seen at a day conference.

Jason Falls, Mr. Social Media Explorer and Café Press, was emcee and earns credit for pulling in presenters the likes of:

  • Gini Dietrich speaking on Marketing in the Round from Chicago
  • Heather Whaling, Geben Communication, sharing PR on the bleeding edge and she’s rockin’ it from Columbus, Ohio
  • David Knox, CMO of Rock Fish and with the Brandery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Jayme Soulati, on Savvier Social Media Across the Marketing Blend, from Dayton, Ohio
  • David Coomer who shared his campaign called Beardvertising (pretty funny)

And others from the region who spoke from public utilities, about retargeting campaigns and more.

Savvier Social Media

Although I whined for four weeks that Jason assigned me the toughest topic – how social media integrates across all the marketing disciplines, the presentation rocked, and it was probably due to the fact that I had a row of hecklers (ahem, Gini Dietrich, Heather Whaling and Deborah) in the front row (not to mention my new laser pointer which reached all the way to the back of the room and spotlighted people who were too engrossed in their devices).

Thanks to Fashionbi, the Milan startup covering global fashion brands, for #RockHot analytics for my deck.

Thanks for Trackur for agreeing to “sponsor” my presentation with the first-ever advertisement in a PowerPoint deck.

Thanks to J. Crew for being the crux of the presentation with a case study on its very savvy social media, although they didn’t know it.

Thanks to the audience for letting me entertain while provoking the main goal – think differently about social media.

Find My Deck On SlideShare

This is my first official upload of a SlideShare deck. I’ve always shied away from sharing my prezzies.

To my surprise and utter delight, there are already 128 views in less than 24 hours. #RockHot!

What’s interesting is that a deck can have the best pictures, but it’s truly all in the delivery.

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Savvier Social Media Across The Marketing Blend

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Soulati-Media-logo.jpgToday, I write from lovely Louisville, Kentucky on site at the IABC Louisville and the Louisville Digital Association conference.

As an invited speaker, the last four weeks have been nothing but thought about the toughest topic Jason Falls could’ve assigned — how social media integrates across the marketing disciplines.

Woah.

What would you say to that?

Exactly.

Everything I’ve read and each social media experience I’ve had have contributed to the content of the deck I present today, called “Savvier Social Media Across The Marketing Blend.”

It is premature to direct you to SlideShare today, as this post was written and scheduled yesterday. I will, however, upload my deck tomorrow for those who couldn’t attend.

I’ll also give you a sneak peak of what’s inside today’s presentation, if you’re reading this in advance!

Companies on Tap

I share examples of the natural connectivity of social media and how professional bloggers can build relationships with global start ups.

Tools for listening are important; can you spot the creative slide featuring this company? I just may be the first person to insert an advertisement in a presentation deck!

J. Crew provides an amazing look at savvier social media and forms the crux for my in-depth example and case study.

My special thanks to Fashionbi for analytics content to make this deck #RockHot!

Microsoft, The Weather Co., and General Electric are thrown in as examples of companies using big data, social media and organizational development to find their way.

The key takeaways?

  • Look internally.
  • Put every marketing department on the same path from the same start point.
  • Nurture internally so everyone can grow.
  • Don’t isolate product marketing or frontline sales.
  • Focus on social media to feed every marketing discipline.
  • Find your brand’s DNA, to quote General Electric, and get passionate.

There will be more to come from today’s presentation.

I wanted to give you just a hint of what’s been keeping my head down and stress levels high.

 

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