Here’s a clip from Part 1 of the series, The Social Side: Social Media for Small Businesses. Read the entire post here.

The Social Side: Social Media for Small Businesses, Part 1

“I want to do it, but I don’t get it.”

The above is the most common statement about social marketing I hear from my clients or potential clients. They have been persuaded through the mounting evidence and successful case studies that social marketing works, but entering the space is an entirely different challenge.

From my vantage point, as a professional digital strategist, their acceptance is a sign of huge progress. In fact, accepting social media and, more importantly, finding the patience to let its effect take hold is paramount to “getting it.” So, congratulations. You’ve made it this far.

Read the entire post here.

The truth is, there is no quick mix. Here’s a clip from a speech Alaina Sheer recently gave on the subject.

To hear Alaina again along with Cement Marketing SEO Director, Brad Spencer, snap up tickets to Finding Your Virtual Mix: A Sway Workshop Day Camp at Ohio University on September 30th. The $38.00 tickets include a full day of search engine marketing and social marketing basics.

The low ticket cost is thanks to our generous hosts for the event: Ohio University’s Innovation Center, Business Remixed and the Small Business Development Center.

[Special thanks to Ruth and Jan of Articulation, Inc. for the above speech - a result of their meticulous and inspiring speech coaching].

Here are a few of the Websites and social media campaigns we’ve launched in recent weeks:

The most challenging element of taking on a social media campaign is wrapping our heads around everything that is going on out there. Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. All of these social mediums are the tools in our arsenal that we use to execute our social marketing message. But when we break it down and understand that the message is one constant that will never change, understand our tools and then move our campaign forward strategically we find clarity.

So where does social media optimization come in?

Social media optimization, by my definition, is the practice of maximizing your message. To effectively maximize a social media message a brand or organization must use their analytics while also factoring in the human barometer. Analytics available via Google, Facebook Insights, Hootsuite for Twitter and YouTube now afford us the ability to measure every social media action we take online during a social media campaign. So for example, if I post a tweet I can instantly measure the messages effectiveness by first tracking it in Hootsuite and then hopping over to Google Analytics to measure the true potency (time on site) of the visitors who clicked through.

But, for true social media optimization, we must also measure the human barometer – which I literally translate into our audience’s reaction. Are they into it or not? If the analytics tell us they’re not but feedback is limited from our audience than we, as a brand, must go out and actually ask our audience what we can do to improve our campaign. The possibilities here are endless as our audience can literally shape our message by making it their own in a matter of minutes. In reality, however, this is something that happens over months and months. Social media optimization ultimately requires our patience as we mold and shape our campaigns in real time.

The keys to executing a successful social media campaign: consistency, relevancy, and commitment.

More here and more on how to craft a social media message in a presentation I just delivered for the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Find out more at the Sway Social Media Workshop, coming up next week. Details here.

Follow Alaina on Twitter.

Cement Marketing is a full service Web Design, Social Media and Search Engine Optimization agency in Columbus, Ohio located at 2489 Summit St., Suite A, Columbus Ohio 43202.

The two-day workshops will be held at Wild Goose Creative in Columbus, directly below the Cement Marketing offices. Visit the Sway Workshop website to find out what makes Sway different than any other conference you’ve been to before.

Register now to take advantage of the early bird ticket rates before they jump up on March 15th.

My personal blog reaches thousands of readers every month.

And while the rewards of blogging are too many to list here, one of my favorite treats is the mystery of my Inbox. I never know what e-mails I’ll find.  Like one today from a reader in the United Arab Emirates who wears the necklace we all designed together every day hidden under her abaya.

Others are from marketers (more on those later this week) and then there are the random oddities like an e-mail from a guy named Josh in California.

Josh had been hunting, to no avail, for a life-size E.T. doll for weeks. Then, after he Googled the term, “lifesize ET doll” Josh found this picture I had posted on my blog in August last year.

And that’s when – unable to find the doll anywhere else – Josh sent me an e-mail.

The doll you got for your kid is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for. Can you give me any information on this doll? (manufacturer, details on the tag or anything else you think may aid me in my search for this illusive collectible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Josh

After a few e-mails Josh revealed that he wanted E.T. to join him on the front of his bike for a ride in California benefiting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. After a chat with E.T.’s owner, my son Benjamin, we decided to lend Josh the E.T. doll. I figured packing E.T. up for a trip across the country would serve as an awesome lesson for Benjamin in geography, sharing and being altruistic.

When I told Josh the news he picked up the phone and called me, “I was going to e-mail you but then I thought, well, I’ll just call her. This is so cool! Thank you!”

And it was. So cool. Social media is more than just a way to communicate, it’s a way to connect – to make the world so much smaller.

A few nights after we hatched the plan and after a few poses in the Cement Marketing office

Benjamin and I brought E.T. to the nearest FedEx store and said our good-byes.

Before packing him up

and shipping him off to a far away place called California.

Stay tuned for pictures of E.T. and Josh (his temporary owner) as they make their way across California for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Until then, here are some more pictures of E.T.s departure in the Cement Marketing Flickr stream.

In the meantime, ask yourself this – where did your brand go today? How are you encouraging your clients or consumers to interact with your brand using the tools that have become a part of their lives?

Unlike any other search or social marketing conference you’ve been to, Sway will teach you how to truly sway your audiences through a hands-on workshop with one-on-one instruction from Cement Marketing’s Bradley Spencer, Alaina Sheer and special guest instructors John Raymond and Leigh Householder. Seats will be limited to ensure that every attendee gets the most out of the Sway experience.

More details coming very soon. We’re putting the final touches on the Sway website as we speak, including these mug shots.

Bradley Spencer, Search Engine Optimization Wizard

Alaina Sheer, Social Marketing Maven and Web Strategist

John Raymond, Search Engine Optimization Consultant

Leigh Householder, or Advergirl, nationally renowned social marketing and digital strategist

We can’t wait to see you there. Stay tuned to the Cement Marketing blog and Twitter for the launch of the Sway Website and registration.

Fate? Destiny? Or just some really cool chartreuse and burryberry mustard chairs.

Either way, we’re beyond pleased with our new space.

And our first client. More on Lifeline of Ohio soon.

]]> http://cementmarketing.com/the-new-first-office/feed/ 0 http://cementmarketing.com/big-things/ http://cementmarketing.com/big-things/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:22:21 +0000 alaina http://www.cementmarketing.com/?p=213 Cement Marketing is proud to announce a move to our first studio/office space.

Located above Wild Goose Creative, the Cement Marketing offices will be at 2489 Summit Street, just south of Hudson in Columbus, Ohio. We can’t wait to show you our new space!

At this very moment, our space looks like this:

And because we have a crazy amount of exciting client work to tend to, we’re planning on transforming the place in less than 36 hours. Stay tuned for an update and follow us on Twitter as we make our progress.

Cement Marketing provides complete Website development, social marketing and search engine optimization services to a select group of clients in Columbus, Ohio. For information or to set up an appointment in our brand new offices, e-mail – alainasheer@cementmarketing.com

With our calendars constantly booked – far into the future – and our deadlines pressing, it’s easy to lose site of what really matters. 

In our case – what matters is making a difference for the audiences our client’s touch. We do it by creating campaigns that move people into action, transform small businesses from being on the brink of bankruptcy to completely and far into the black or by giving a non-profit the tools they need to make the most of their online property.

And we also do it by moving at a very human pace.

We want every client’s social or search marketing campaign to fly but we know it’s a process that can’t be rushed. Building the foundation of your interactive marketing campaigns through search and social marketing takes an investment of time, resources and yes – dollars.

It seems ironic, doesn’t it? That social media – something so fast – would take so much time. 

But unless you have one of the few instant viral sensations on your hands, building a fan base on Facebook and a following on Twitter take time. And not just weeks, but months. Building relationships is something you can not rush – not as a person and not as a brand.

And even though we’re constantly attached to our iPhones, our Twitter and our Facebook – we love to put it all away, turn it all off and just relax. Life is just so much better that way and so are our campaigns. 

What will matter to you in 2010? 

Find stellar advice on finding your own path in this world that is moving way too fast in Seth Godin’s new and entirely free eBook – What Matters Now.