Jun

The Cat, The Rabbit, and Social Media Marketing

By Sid

“Here kitty kitty…”

We were asked by our neighbor to feed their cat the other afternoon. While not normally a tough assignment, this was just one of those times…

It was dinner time, and this was one chunky cat. I couldn’t imagine him missing a meal under any circumstances.

We called… and we called. After several minutes of walking the neighborhood, we heard a noise come from under their front porch.

Flashlight in hand, we peered into the darkness.

He was there… and so was the rabbit he’d caught and killed.

“C’mon… it’s dinner time.”

He looked up at us with huge green eyes, as if to say, “You’re joking, right?”

Which just goes to show you that…

You won’t get any takers for your can of kitty tuna when they’re already gorging on fresh meat.

The Social Media Marketing Mind Map

In trying to make some sense of the mania around social media and social networking, I put together the following simple mind map.

See, as I watch the frenzy around Twitter and Facebook, I’m also closely observing the “SEO Camp” who are sticking to their guns around the value of good content, blogs, and search engine optimization.

As in many cases, it appears to be an all-out battle between the forces of good (let’s all be friends) and evil (Google). What strikes me as particularly odd is that both groups are right.

You can grow your business, get new customers, and make sales by driving traffic to a well-crafted blog through the search engines… AND you can do the same by building your social network.

And, in truth, the two sides of what I loosely call “Social Media Marketing” are rather intertwined.

Here’s How The Social Media Marketing Mind Map Works…

The simple Mind Map above doesn’t show all the details, but it will give you a sense of how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

1. Chicken or Egg

You can start on the Content side or the Connections side. It doesn’t really matter. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume you start connecting first…

As you begin to interact with your customers, colleagues and your target customers through your CONNECTIONS on the social web, you get a better sense of the CONTENT they want and need from you.

2. Speak to me, baby…

You pay attention to what they’re saying, the questions they’re asking, and the conversations that are taking place. From this information, you create CONTENT in the form of articles, white papers, special reports, video presentations, and audio.

3. See, I’m a good listener…

Once your content is created, you let your CONNECTIONS know. You set up your blog to automatically post the content to Twitter and Facebook. You post it to your LinkedIn groups for further review and discussion.

And, you SYNDICATE the content so that the greater world social community can learn from your sheer genius. Syndication includes things like posting to video sites (YouTube, etc.), iTunes, and social bookmarketing sites.

Note: there are ways to syndicate that get you into trouble (and banned from these services) and ways that get you noticed. For example, it’s a big NO-NO to bookmark your own blog posts.

4. Google, how I love thee…

As your content gets “noticed” (viewed, read, commented upon) by your social network, the search engines will take notice. Hopefully, all those Diggs, comments and back links will increase the “deep links” to your blog and give you more search engine traffic.

5. And look at all my new friends…

These people who come to you from the search engines are invited to follow you on Twitter, join your fan page on Facebook, and connect with you on LinkedIn. (Jim Turner, who recently created a wonderful how-to guide on Social Networking calls this his “Golden Trio”).

They, in turn, re-Tweet your content to THEIR followers, Digg your content, and comment on your blog posts.

If they like it, they tell their friends. You get more “Google points” and more connections through the social networks.

Do you see how, if this is done well, “Lead Generation” will become a thing of the past. You simply make connections, create good content, and people who want what you have will flock to you.

Which brings me back to the cat with the rabbit…

The secret to making this “system” work is VALUE.

If you’re not providing something tasty to your hungry audience, they’ll get fed somewhere else.

Your content must be fresher than the stale can of tuna your competition is offering, and you’ve got to stay in touch with your connections… or they’ll go right out and catch themselves a nice little bunny rabbit for themselves.

[Editors note: No animals were harmed in the writing of this article. While the cat really did catch the rabbit, you'll be happy to know that we had a big salad from our garden for dinner.]

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