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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Soulati Media On The Street With Shane Rhyne, Ackermann PR

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Thanks to Stephanie Wonderlin at Social Slam in her 10 impressive minutes of fame where she said that YouTube video got more attention from search engines than web pages or Vimeo.

That statement caused my mind to stray to my neglected YouTube channel and what wasn’t there — enough videos to be impressive. Stephanie changed my life right then and there; I resolved to fix my sheer laziness with snippets of <2 minute snips (another Stephanie tip) then and there at Social Slam.

New on the Soulati Media YouTube channel are 9 videos posted in Knoxville live from Social Slam. Within 10 minutes, I had product, I had launch, I had video all raw and in the moment on the street. Gotta love that takeaway; may I energize you to try the same?

Guest one is Shane Rhyne, director of digital with 30-year-old Ackermann PR in Knoxville. Shane wears a hat that distinguishes him in a crowd; sheesh, the guy is 6’4″ does he need to command any more attention?

So we bantered and got down to brass tacks — PR is all about integration and    Shane offers a tip for newbie PR professionals not yet engaging in social media to “just get started.” See what you think about Shane’s commanding presence on camera; I’d say he nailed it, wouldn’t you?

Thoughts After Social Slam 2012

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You missed the IRL event of the year in Knoxville last Friday. We got to see so many social media mavens and not so mavens, about 600, gathered in Knoxville for the second annual affair. Congratulations to the Knoxville Social Media Club and Mark W. Schaefer, founder of the event, for another amazing gig.

Thanks, too, for the swag bag although take a look in the photo above and see if you can spot the typo? How could that happen? LOL. Loved lunch, sponsored by Bush’s Baked Beans and cashed in already for my two free cans of veggie baked beans. Awesome swag.

The most incredible thing for we who paid more to sit in front of the stanchion and call ourselves VIP to hob knob with the A-lister faculty, breath, was the opportunity to press the flesh of the names we’ve only seen on streams. And we were closer to Mitch Joel’s cross-the-line innuendos prior to those in the back of the room.

I checked in on Facebook and tagged 25 others also present from my community alone! W00T!  After Stephanie Wonderlin presented for 10 minutes with 10 tips about video, I got the most awesome idea to use my iPhone 4S to do some spontaneous interviewing. And, thus, Soulati Media “On The Street” was born (although that branding is just announced and not yet on film!). I’ll be sharing eight video snippets from the movers and shakers who contributed to Social Slam 2012 in upcoming blog posts. Curious ahead of time? Hit my YouTube channel (link right over there) and sneak peek!

Some Thoughts

These are my nuts and bolts about the day, and I hope you add a few I may have missed:

  • Data. Analytics. I’d like to write a #ThatIsAll here, but feel the need to explain a bit further. We heard a fabulous presentation by Tom Webster with Edison Research who writes over at Brand Savant. His skills as a presenter are honed with humor, extremely relevant content and information that makes you cringe because your campaigns are not created with his company’s customized research to get the customized data and the customized analytics. Did I say customized?

I sat in a workshop about Social Search (I may be writing more on that soon as it’s a topic that warrants more explanation) that did nothing but upset me. The expertise flowing from Sean McGinnis, Sam Fiorella and their colleague was fast, high-level, confusing, and lacked a roadmap for me to follow. That is why I walked away from there unhappy; there is so much to learn and understand about social data that people in the room needed those basics. When your presenters are so above board with their expertise (like an airplane to a car) and the audience is still trying to buy a car, there’s a disconnect. Nothing against these gents who were wowsome; it’s just me who isn’t.

  • Integrated Campaigns. Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston wrote a book, Marketing In The Round, that just came out the day of  Social Slam. I was waiting for Gini to promote the book and let 600 people know how to buy it, but apparently, Social Slam planners allegedly didn’t allow its promotion? (Check the link over there to buy it now.) Why? Terribly remiss. Gini is one of the A-listers (she’ll deny it every time) in my circles; she is a leader in my community, and every person in the entire VIP section knows her. She was also the morning keynote presenter.  Buy her book; this is social media, people; let authors promote books with content social media professionals need to read.

Integrated marketing is still the answer. We can have data, we can have teams, but the silos need to come down and the campaigns need to be cohesive so we can share the success stories. Gini has something important to say; her content is relevant and required.

  • Presentation skills. You know how 3 p.m. is death time for any conference? I can vouch for that. There I was, absolutely doing the head bob, and I was saved and became a true believer — thank you Marcus Sheridan! This lion that roared rocked the house; he put the energy into the room that was so low people were sleeping. He walked the room, he boomed his voice, he threw the mic at people, “Love it, embrace it…what’s your name?” And he engaged IRL, in people’s faces with names on the spot and ad libs the likes of any LaLaLand actor. What Marcus said, for the life of me, I can’t remember; just speaking the truth; but, what I’ll remember was the most amazing presentation skills of anyone at the entire event. Way to go, Marcus! High marks.
  • Content Marketing. And, then came Mark W. Schaefer who was doomed after Marcus, but really not. Mark wrote his second book, Return On Influence, which he gave away to the conference — is this a pattern, Mark?  Mark’s presentation style was engaging and his content was loaded with storytelling about others and proof points about why he thinks brands need to pay closer attention to social influencers and how to find and use them.

Conclusion

I traveled with Deb Dobson of Vorys, a Columbus law firm. It was our first meeting, and turns out we trek the same circles on the Interwebz, thus our plan to drive 11 hours round trip. This gave us a lot of time to converse about so much; she’s a talker, you know…I’m sure I didn’t get a word in edgewise…! Heh, hi, Deb!

Deb, in her infinite wisdom as a business development, social marketing, IT and analytics geek, encapsulated the entire day for me as I was lamenting my lack of knowledge in a few areas of social. See if you feel better, too.

There are three types of social marketing experts:

1. The Data Driver — the numbers nerd who lives and breathes this stuff (guys like Tom and Sean and Sam and Deb, as above) and looks at blog traffic as boring as hell because there are so many more ways to skin the cat.

2. The Apps Man — the first leader, the early adopter and the one who jumps from new app to new app to be the first to test, like/hate and write about it. Can you say Mashable?

3. Content Marketer — here’s where I fall, and I’m so glad Deb helped me find my way home as I had gone astray after Social Slam. We in this category have an expertise that is so critical to the other two. Without messaging and creative content that brings number 1 and number 2 to life, there would be NO social anything. I execute content marketing strategy.

What were your takeaways from Social Slam 2012 or anything else I just tossed at you on a bright Monday?  Good to be home.

Pink Slime Social Media Blame Game

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Credit: NorthIowaToday.com

Oh, to be a beef producer that has to slaughter 1.5 million more head of cattle and raise prices on poor consumers to accommodate retailers and school lunch programs that no longer wish to add the pink-slime-ammonium-hydroxide-laced additive that makes ground beef leaner.

And, guess who’s to blame? WE ARE!

We are the consumers who sit around all day on social media channels attacking this brand and that brand with our onslaught of detractions to effect change in the corporate world that has been doing the same thing for 20 years to unsuspecting families.

Alas. Social media is the corporation’s nemesis; well, it’s only the nemesis for those organizations that have something to hide, right?

I don’t eat red meat; I’m a flexitarian (look, Microsoft Word doesn’t even recognize that word) – I’ll eat meat on occasion, but I prefer to be a veg head – that’s what I crave (some say it’s because my blood type is A+ … the grades I got in school every day). I digress.

We’re talking about the pink slime debacle that the USDA is saying will cost…WAIT! There isn’t a cost in the Wall Street Journal article today; did that reporter fall down on his job? I bet he tried to get a price tag beyond “effectively slaughtering 1.5 million more cattle” to add to the story.

Hmm, can you put a price tag on healthier eating versus the risk of ingesting ammonium hydroxide filler in cheap cuts of meat sold by lower-value grocers to people without ability to purchase high-priced organic health foods for their families?

So, five governors in states that produce this poorly-labeled-and-pummeled (waahh) pink slime filler are lining up to defend “this unwarranted, unmerited food scare” according to the Governor of Iowa Terry Branstad alongside Texas Governor Rick Perry. They’ve both vowed to eat the product…hurray!

What’s missing from the story that also has the Nebraska governor upended is the number of jobs at risk for suspension of pink slime production (in Texas and Iowa, as well). I’m sure the reporter asked that question, too; after all, this is the Wall Street Journal reporting.

And, so, dear friends and consumers who sit around all day writing blog posts, posting detractions on social media and essentially rabble-rousing the entire population of Americans against an industry that has long functioned without consumer watchdogs…keep on. No sense crying over spilled pink milk, eh?

I, for one, applaud you.

This Is Your Social Media Sharing Quiz

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I wasn’t going to blog today as I’m feeling extreme stress and inability to comprehend life and the pursuit of happiness.

Chalk it up to not having taxes done, select soccer, taekwando belt testing, yard work, client service, a newly combined blog and website with fabulous SEO and powerful inbound marketing, pulling my upper calf muscle (again) on the tennis court and burning the skin from an ice pack…sorry, just had to get that all off my chest.

Then I read , and he writes a wonderful  piece about Ragu and empathy; read it, you’ll like his creative bridge just as I did.

I’m getting to the point, promise. I went to share this down below in comments just like a good commenter should.  I hit “Share+” expecting it to be Google+. Instead, I got a litany of sites on which to share. I kept scrolling and scrolling to find the bottom and was astonished at the variety and my apparent lack of intelligence about mostly any of these.

Upon further inspection, I think we’ve got a list of world-wide shares, as I see some language I can’t understand and extensions in Russia, among others. For the purposes of today’s post (which I wasn’t going to write), I challenge anyone to dissect these below. Mind you , it took about 10 screen shots to capture these as I couldn’t enlarge the pop-up window (did you see that story on pop-up restaurants today in the Wall Street Journal?  Budding restaurateurs trying/testing cuisine concepts, ala Kosher foods, in lobbies of other businesses that close at night; neat marketing idea.

Are you familiar with even ¼ of these listed below? Have some fun, and now I’m going to go away and try to breathe.

P.S. If you scroll to the bottom and see this post script (I have no idea where it ends up with all these images), you know it took me longer to set up these darn jpg than to write the post, eh?

Have a great weekend, dear Friends!

Attend Social Slam April 2012

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Social Slam 2011

Last year I presented at Social Slam in Knoxville (see me at left with Ann Deeter Gallaher and Trey Pennington (RIP)); the inaugural regional blast-of-an-event you can’t miss this year. The event is going to be the best gathering of IRL social media mavens, rock stars, A-listers (yes, all the names you’re not supposed to use) you’ve been interacting with during the past year.

Please join me and so many others in this community and beyond on April 27, 2012 in Knoxville. We’re having a Tweet Up Thursday evening, so you can’t miss that, either! (Of course, it’s AFTER the VIP pre-party; 10:15 p.m. at a location TBD).

Tickets to attend are the lowest ever and quite affordable. Knoxville is a hop, skip and a jump from most states east of the Mississippi (I sang that as I typed it so I’d know how to spell it).

What’s more, the line up of speakers promises to be worth it so you can say you met them IRL. I’m so excited to see everyone this year, and you’ll get to meet up/tweet up with the likes of these keynoters:

  • Mitch Joel — keynoter and amazingly articulate “digital rock star” who founded Twist Image; he’s going to address the Six Pixels of Separation that define the social mediaosphere.
  • Mark W. Schaefer — my buddy from the earliest days of Twitter in spring 2009 when we launched together and became fast friends. It’s his expert tutelage that drives he behind-the-scenes of this fabulous event and he does a grand job as emcee, too. He’s over at his Grow blog beating the bushes with books, presentations, video,  and lots of insight.

Also IRL and presenting lots of grand content in sessions are some of these you may recognize:

  • Jay Baer — author, blogger, social media rock star who writes over at Convince and Convert; we saw him last year and he did rock the house.
  • Tom Webster of Edison Research who is accessible @Webby2001
  • Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion
  • Stanford Smith, Pushing Social
  • Sean McGinnis of DotCoLaw
  • Billy Delaney

There’s tons of great content; the audience numbers ~400, and the chance to meet everyone up close and personal is the best opportunity ever. When you can only share words on a post with folks and no one gets to touch a hand or give a hug, something is missing. That’s the prime reason I’m going…so shake a leg and join me! Seats are still available!