The social media session at SES Chicago (a Search Engine Strategies Conference) was a whirlwind of tips/ideas/thoughts about how to leverage social media for far more than just viral campaigns.  Taking a look through this you are bound to come up with some new thoughts or ideas for your social media marketing.  So, hold your breath – this posting is list upon list upon list of thought-starters of how you can leverage social media.

Why social Media?

Social media helps you get visitors and impressions BUT also inbound links and can increase your natural search rankings.

The panel included social media rockstars (Jennifer Evans Laycock, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide Fionn Downhill, CEO & President, Elixir Interactive Chris Winfield, President, 10e20, LLC) who shared their tips/tricks and ideas on how to leverage social media; here is the best of the session

5 Requirements for Social Media to Work

• Have Clear goals/objectives.
• Promote Great Content
• Contribute to the communities
• Make the sites work together
• Have great hosting

3 Commandments of social media marketing

1) Thou Shalt Know Thy Customer

·        All about delivering the goods

·        Can’t deliver, if you don’t know the desire

2) Though Shalt be Remarkable

·        Amazing marketing message – find something that people are passionate about

·        Amazing company

3) Though Shalt Try, Try Again

·        Most viral efforts don’t take off

·        Every try improves your marketing

What Makes Good Content?

• Lists
• HowTo
• Surveys
• Best Ofs
• Calculators Tools – what would people in your industry want on their site or want to link to
• Video
• Widgets
• Quizes
• Badges – Get a link to post results at the end of a survey with a link back to you. 

Basic Elements of a Viral Campaign:

• Gives away products or services
• Provides for effortless transfer to others
• Scales easily from small to very large
• Exploits common motivations and behaviors
• Utilizes existing communication networks
• Takes advantage of others’ resources

“You cannot control viral marketing but you can enable it”

What to Leverage:

• Blogs
• Forums (often overlooked – these can be GREAT traffic and link sources)
• Social Bookmarking and Tagging (digg, Reddit, etc)
• Press Releases
• Photo Directories/Images (Flickr, Photrade)
• Social Media Sites (Facebook, Myspace)
• Videos (YouTube, Vimeo)
• Podcasts (Your own or sponsor/partner with existing ones)
• Article Marketing (submission sites where you can get links/seo ranking and impressions)
• E-Zines, Newsletters
• White Papers
• Wikipedia

A ton of great content in a short session…. anyone else have thoughts or ideas?

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