Social For Marketing: It's Not About Me, It's About You

Attended the Online Marketing Summit in Cleveland yesterday. Social media people are fun and when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, this gathering brings together people who know what they're talking about.

Here's what stuck out in my mind, or thoughts I had while I was sitting at the conference:

• "We need to be in a perpetual state of Beta." Meaning you need to constantly ask yourself these questions about your digital content: Do people like what you've created online? What needs to be added?
  - Kip Edwardson (@kedwardson), manager of interactive marketing of Scotts Miracle Gro, who, by the way, has 8 people on his team. Can you afford one? Half a person?

• Some thoughts from John Heaney (@johnheaney): You don't get to mandate how people receive your message. Be where your fans are, and they'll hear what you're saying. But don't forget to give them what they're looking for: "If everything is me, me, me, I guarantee no one is listening."

• We probably need a social media policy, even though I've been resisting it. You probably do, too.
  
  
• The key to content success? It's not about what you want. It's about what your readers want.

• Increase your content that is link worthy, that people will want to link to, and you'll increase site traffic. Blogs are an easy and great way to do it. Schedule out keywords and topics you want to cover. And the first four words of your headlines are most important as far as indexing for search. Make them count. Thanks, Dominic. (@DJLitten)
  
  
• What are people willing to do for five dollars? Fiverr.com

• Having trouble selling social at your business? Bring examples of other companies you wouldn't expect to see on Twitter. How about the Pentagon? @pentagonchannel