Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Interesting question. Why does your friend want more traffic and readership? Is your friend promoting a cause? Is there a plan to monetize that increased traffic? Or is this just a kind of social experiment?

Dear Krista,

One of the top authority people on the machinations of
Facebook is Mari Smith www.marismith.com.

From reading Mari's posts, or by following the teachings of:

Gary Halbert,
www.thegaryhalbertletter.com
Yanik Silver,
www.surefiremarketing.com
Frank Kern,
www.masscontrolsite.com/blog/
Dan Keneddy
www.dankennedy.com
Perry Marsall,
www.perrymarshall.com
or John Carlton
www.john-carlton.com

... among others, you'll see that they are ALL advocates of one thing: relationships.

As am I.

And, it is my FIRMEST contention, so should ANY marketer worth his or her salt. The building of relationships must be at the top of every marketer's and business owner's list. Not that I have any strong feelings on this you understand.

One of the key things Mari advises when it comes to Twitter, Tweeting, and Facebook is to keep in mind the nature of the networks: they are SOCIAL networks.

They are NOT buying networks. Nor are they advertising networks. They're social. That means relaxing. Chatting. Drinking. Smoking. Eating. Hanging out. Listening to music. Attending a great concert.

Notice that none of these elemental behaviours are intrinsically retail-based. True, there might be a small purchase, but the exchange of money for a movie ticket and popcorn is not the point, it's not the focus.

The movie is the point. The parts played by the ticket and the popcorn are the hands clasped in prayer. They are not the sermon, nor are they the blessing.

Does this make sense?

Now, this isn't just some namby-pamby, touchy feeling theory thing I've dreamed up out of thin air. I've been studying this kind of behaviour for NINE YEARS and in the realm of marketing, it's vitally important not to ignore the element of the "what" in terms of the activity and the "where" in terms of the environment it's taking place in.

Why? Because the two are intertwined in astonishing complex ways that take us into the bedazzling world of complex neurology and chaos theory.

So as you see, it goes waaaay deeper than "selling stuff" and it's vital that marketers wake up to this fact.

As an activity, the social aspect of social networks is a deeply rooted part of our evolutionary DNA.

This means when we are in bed we are usually in "sleep" or "sex" mode. When we are in a movie theatre or reading a book, we are usually in "escapism" mode, and so on.

Likewise hunting and gathering in the local supermarket. When we're thus occupied, we are generally NOT thinking about income tax returns or the meaning of life. We're looking for milk, eggs, and bread.

When people are on Twitter or Facebook, they're generally in "Hi, great to see you! What's happening?" mode. Social, see?

They are generally not in "Hmm, that's very interesting. How many widgets per hour will this facilitate?" mode. Buying, see?

Which means people in social mode are, as a rule, far less inclined to accept or act on an offer that is ... or that is perceived to be ... an ad, promotion, or sales pitch for something.

Perception here is huge.

To appeal to a fan base, one must offer social goodies: a celebrity studded party, a glittering gathering, an out of this world activity, an audience with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, a t-shirt that comes with a free Maserati, or some other activity or adornment that tells the world that its owner belongs to something super dooper special.

The notion here of exclusivity and belonging is huge. Don't over look it.

But whatever it is, tour event must thoroughly engage people's social interests. It must be the hot dog stand or the fish and chip van placed on a strategic street corner on a chilly evening after the bars close. It must be the glistening watering hole on a parched savannah. The shelter from the storm.

It must be open, engaging, inviting, fun, and chock full of surprises, prizes, and things that make people go "Wow! I just won a vacation in the Caymans!" or whatever.

Fans want an exclusive relationship with the person or thing they're offering allegiance to. They want reassurance that they're welcomed and adored just as much as the focus of their attention is welcomed and adored by them.

Your friend is the chief. His or her fan base is the tribe. Treat these tribe members as you'd treat your bestest friend ever in the whole, wide world on their wedding day, every birthday, and every Christmas all rolled into one ... and you'll be golden.

Then, once outside social network, THEN place a "Wow! This is just too good to pass on!" offer in front of them via a link or a sales page well away from Twitter and Facebook.

Treat your tribe well and they'll reciprocate. Treat them like crap and they be gone in a flash, taking their adoration (and their wallets) with them.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA.

Dear Krista,

The main aim of Twitter and the new Facebook fanpage you are planning will be to drive traffic to the blog. So we basically keep all advertising on the blog and use the other two purely as traffic resources.

The fanpage will basically be useful to attract existing facebook members who might not be part of your friends network on twitter. So what you need is an initial burst of fans from twitter and then the facebook page would go viral. Once the fanpage is independent, then you can duplicate the twitter content (article links, etc) on it, as we would basically be seeing these two as separate entities.

Looking at it this way, I would say you can initially use some unique content for the fanpage which would attract the twitter followers to become fans there. Once that initial goal is achieved, then as mentioned before you can start using content similar to what you have on twitter.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Clive Fernandes
Clive Fernandes Consulting