I could subtitle this post: How to Learn Social Media Marketing.

The ecairn blog has a list of the top 150 social media blogs. The list was created by their tool that identifies influencers. I wish it were a graphic and I would pin it on Pinterest. Since it isn’t, go check it out.

Here’s a preview:

#1 is Chris Brogan

#2 is Seth Godin

MarketingProfs is #10.

Peter Shankman and others are on the list. It’s fun to note who I’ve met or heard speak. There are a few I haven’t heard of. I consider many on this list my marketing heroes and people I’ve admired and learned from for many years. I’ve invited or worked on campaigns to get them to speak locally.

At this point I mostly follow my favorites on Twitter. Recently I’ve subscribed to some on Facebook. I don’t spend as much time learning as I did in the beginning because I’m implementing what I’ve learned and come up with.

Many times people think that they can become an expert by attending conferences and reading but at some point you must practice. Once you learn the principles of social media marketing and get to know the tools a lot of the work is creative. You have to think. I wish there was a magic wand but there isn’t. While you can be inspired by seeing what other people do that is successful (I search Google and press releases because most of the time people write brag about what worked) you have to do it to really learn.

Just remember that even experts are still learning, thinking and trying out ideas.

Someone asked me recently how to learn social media marketing. Here’s my answer:

• Go through this list and add each blog to your reader (like Google Reader)
• Set aside consistent time to read posts they write. You’ll find who you like and learn from the most, so then just concentrate on their blog.
• Comment on the posts you love.
• Really get to know the bloggers you read. Find out when and where they are speaking and try to not only go hear them, but meet them. Get your picture taken with them.  This is very motivating and inspiring.
• Follow your favorites on Twitter, subscribe to them on Facebook and Google+ (depending on where you’re most active). Everyone shares slightly differently on each platform, find one or all ways to track your favorite bloggers.
• Look for webinars, recordings (search Google to see if they have podcasts), slides (slideshare) and YouTube videos by your favorite bloggers.
• Practice applying the principles you learn from reading and listening to the bloggers.

As mentioned in the blog post I’m referencing, BlogWorld is a great place to meet several of your social media blogging heroes in one place.

One last thing, there are people who do this as their job and that is all. I’ve never considered it work because I’m passionate about social media marketing. Even after a full day of work I want to come home (ok, most days I work from home as a consultant) and read more, learn more and try different ideas. If you have to make yourself learn this because it would be good for your career you might want to consider a different career. While knowing social media will help you in most careers there are many jobs that don’t require or even discourage it.

To me this is FUN. Not every second, but overall I love it.

“From what travel agents are telling me, that horrifying image (of the massive ship on its side) is going to turn the cruise industry on its side, too.”

-Mike Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Cruise Week Magazine, as quoted in USA TODAY

What a quote. It’s my favorite of the week. I’m pondering this as I read stories and see images of the Italian cruise ship that hit an obstacle and within minutes starting to fill with water and go down. How no one was prepared. How it was so unexpected. And how tragic it is because it was entirely avoidable. But most of all how the captain of the ship reacted.

Talk about a PR disaster! I can see the headline: Cruise Industry Sinking!

Not only is the cruise industry facing this but Italy also has a PR disaster because the captain of the ship walked off! Now he’s in jail. What a coward.

Contrast this to Sully who successfully landed a plane in the Hudson and carefully helped his passengers off in freezing water. We felt a surge of national pride.

What would you do if this were you, your industry or your country?

In a sense when bad news hits, it’s like an obstacle you didn’t see coming and after a point, couldn’t avoid hitting.

The story of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia sinking (here are some great photos of the cruise ship on Google +) in fair weather with clear skies is more than a PR disaster for the cruise industry though. It’s more than the story of people dying and the person in charge running off while everyone else suffers (bringing to mind the stories of Enron, Bernard Madoff, execs from major financial institutions).

It’s a story that reminds me of what happens to industries (newspapers, music, books), people, companies (Borders, Circuit City, WordPerfect, Hollywood video) and products (dvds, text books) all of the time.  I’m fascinated by what happens next after  you go through the shock and clean up the damage, what emerges.

This story is sad, true and it’s a powerful metaphor for business. What did it teach you?

It’s a big week in Utah for social media and the outdoor industry. There are 2 social media events and 2 social media conferences on Wed., January 18th. The Outdoor Retailer show is also going on.

I’m going to Shift Summit and going to try to also make it to the tail end of the SLC Social Media Club meeting.  (Gabrielle Blair of the amazing Design Mom blog is coming over from ALT to speak at Shift).

Here are the events taking place this week:

1. ALT  runs Jan. 18-21. It’s huge for design/mom/craft bloggers.
2. Then there’s Social Commerce on January 18th from 6:30 to 8:30.
3. The Social Media Club (SLCSEM) is meeting at the Leanardo on January 18th 6-9pm.

For the SLCSEM event Bing, Sundance, SEO.com, and SLCSEM.org are speaking about video search. It features speakers from Bing and Sundance.

Topics:

• Video search engine optimization

• Why search engines are changing to videos and images

When: Wed. Jan. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Where: The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South in Salt Lake City, Utah (the old Salt Lake City library building that has been turned into a museum of sorts)

I didn’t know this but Bing, (owned by Microsoft) controls about 30% of the search engine market and a major sponsor of Sundance.

More info and register for the Salt Lake City Social Media Club event here. Unfortunately it says to get on the waiting list. When I tried signing up last week the site wasn’t working and I finally gave up). Too bad because I just got the press release a few moments ago.

Hope to see you at both events!

I saw a press release today from Dunkin’ Donuts that made me pause. Get this. Their new Twitter campaign is all about how to EAT HEALTHY and keep your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. By going to Dunkin Donuts.

How clever marketing agency!

Sorry, anything with the word donuts in its name isn’t where I’m going to get healthy food, no matter how low calorie your other items might be.

For one week they are asking people to tweet weight loss tips using the hashtag #DDSMART. They are promoting their “better-for-you” menu (which is way too healthy to be a mid-level calorie choice). One winner per day gets a $50 gift card. And yes, if you are actually on a diet going into a doughnut shop to spend that $50 might not be that smart. Or are you going to pass up your favorite glazed with sprinkles for an egg white sandwich on multigrain bread? And the rest of the menu, well, it’s a landmine! You’re in the war zone, so don’t even tell me you’re going to eat healthy.

Here’s how your tweets will be judged (from their contest rules): A) 40% – Overall Appeal; B) 30% – Adherence To The Theme; and C) 30% – Originality/Creativity.

They got it all wrong. Well, not all wrong. They are capitalizing on a trend with a social media campaign (this would be perfect for my book). That’s good. People are coming out of the holiday fog/binge and want to lose weight. They are onto something there. But here’s what their Twitter campaign should’ve been.

Everyone makes and breaks New Year’s resolutions right now. Almost everyone decides to go on a diet. Almost half of us have fallen off the wagon within 6 months.

“Within the first week 25% of people break their resolutions. After half of the year, only 46% of people are still keeping their promises.”

People on diets dream of things like donuts all day until they go crazy and eat one. So why not help them out a little by suggesting they break their resolution with you? Or, if you’re like me and a lot of other people you have a cheat day (another trend, diets that have cheat days) that you dream of all week long.

Why not have people tweet what they plan to eat on their cheat day? And, oh, btw, if you want healthy, we have you covered. They can make some suggestions off their healthy menu item but focus on the large percentage of people who break their diets.

That’s how I’d do it. I don’t think I’m the only one either:

I’m very tempted to tweet snarky suggestions such as: Park as far away from the front door as possible then sprint to the front door. That way if you die of a heart attack, at least you can get a donut on your way out. But I’m too nice for that.

What can you learn from this? Capitalize on large trends like New Year’s resolutions in your social media campaigns. But don’t confuse customers with competing messages. Stick to something that will reinforce your brand image. Because donuts and diets just don’t go well together.

One of my favorite business activities is hosting, attending, or studying great blogger events and campaigns.  I’m still fascinated with the power of blogs and what a revolution it is in the media world.

Tonight I had dinner at Cafe Zupas. They are a casual restaurant chain that serves gourmet soups, salads and sandwiches.

Zupas is great at blogging. The blog looks great (or at least it used to – not as crazy about the new look) and they enlisted several local food bloggers to write for them. They chose  bloggers are influencers who already have followings of their own. Since Zupas started in Utah, I know some of them.

The bloggers write about their post on their own blog (example) and draw in their readers. They are brand ambassadors for the restaurant. I’m hoping to interview their marketing department.

Tonight I noticed that they are now selling a simple but nice cookbook with the best recipes from their blog. In other words, they made it into a product. A product that promotes their brand. Smart. This could make an ideal giveaway for a brand to give away to Facebook fans (a PDF version for new likes), new newsletter subscribers, or as a download on your blog.

The great thing about the cookbook is it features a profile of each blogger. The bloggers get copies to give away on their blogs and are of course helping to promote it. Don’t tell my sister but I bought her one for Christmas.

Related articles

• Local Business Marketing – Host a Blogger Event (newspapergrl.com)
• Pitching to bloggers – the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching (buildabetterblog.com)

I’m really getting into the marketing, I mean holiday season this year. Like some people like to see the decorations or Christmas tress go up,  I like seeing all the holiday social media marketing campaigns.

I’m a fan of gift guides and SmartBrief, one of my favorite social media email newsletters, has examples of many gift guides including their own. You could get inspired to create one of your own or find gifts for your friends.

AllFacebook has a post with great ideas for holiday posts (be they blog posts, wall posts, tweets or even the basis of social media campaigns).

I must end with gifts. It’s not from me, but I’m telling you about it. Get 30 mins. of free wifi on Delta flights that have wifi capability from December 12 through January 2. Here’s the press release. I’m going to Vegas, hopefully we get lucky.

If you’re looking for some holiday music, check out this indie Christmas music from Deer Child. I have it playing as I write this. When it comes to nostalgia and connecting with your fans a little music could help create the right mood. These are religious because I am but snag a local indie band to create something for the background in your video or as a gift to your fans.

I’ve always said that when it comes to marketing the internet is an open book – and it’s even searchable. Since it’s almost Christmas most retailers are running holiday campaigns with social media.

Learn from watching what others do and then modify their ideas to fit your needs. Note the landing pages, the rules, design, and apps they use. Look at how they titled the contest. Try out contests just to see how easy (or not) they are to enter and share with others.

Here a few ideas to get you started.

1. Run a Holiday Themed Facebook Photo Contest
This is a classic Facebook contest idea (see the article I wrote for American Express OPEN forum for more ideas). Gap has the “12 Days of Joy” c0ntest. Fans are asked to “Submit a photo of your most fun, cool, sweet, or in any way interesting holiday tradition.” They will pick 12 winners to will get $500 Gap gift cards. They use OfferPop to run their campaign.

2. Start a Movement with a Cause-Related Social Campaign
MoveOn is queen of cause-related email marketing. I love their new campaign for Christmas called, “Love Makes a Family.”  If you know me you know it doesn’t matter if you like the industry or agree with the politics – you can still learn from them.

4. Ask your Fans to Make a Christmas Wish List (with your products)
I like this campaign because it is sure to boost sales. If you’re going to the trouble of making a list of what you want to buy, you may as well go ahead and click “checkout.” Amazon should do something like this for their wish lists (mine is pretty long if you are wondering what to get me for Christmas this year!).

You could also make that wish list into a competition and you could win your wish list. L’Occitane en Provence: “Wish List Competition” http://on.fb.me/uSPQkB (OfferPop powered)

5. Start a Gift Guide or Recommendation List
You can go basic just by publishing a PDF file or web site full of gift ideas, or you can go fancy. The grandmama of them all is Etsy’s Gift Ideas for Facebook Friends.  It culls through your Facebook friends, looks at their profiles and makes recommendations of homemade gifts you could buy for them based on their tastes. Brilliant!

6. Twelve or 25 Days of Christmas Promotions
Talbots is doing a 12 Days of Christmas sweepstakes. Each day there’s a new product they are giving  away and you get extra entries for fans. Great way to subtly suggest products for their customers to buy with a nice picture of the day’s product on their Facebook landing page. They also use OfferPop’s referral app.

7. A B2B Christmas

It may seem easier to promote consumer products, but you can get into the holidays even if you’re B2B. Red Rock Media did a great job on this with their 12 tips of Christmas. Each day is a new tip on their blog. Anyone could do this. I could give 12 tips of a PR Christmas. If you are a design firm you could do 12 days of Christmas designs and showcase your past work (and promote people to order cards from you – this combined with SEO could really help you out every Christmas).

My Gift to You
Alright, your turn. Any ideas or examples you’ve seen of excellent holiday social media marketing? This is your chance to share (and promote your good work or business too). As my gift to you, if your example is good I’ll tweet it to over 9,000 people on Twitter. Just leave a prewriten tweet with a bit.ly in your comment that I can use or edit.

Mark Cuban is an Internet billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He has a new book out. It’s short at just under 100 pages and it’s cheap too, at $2.51. He hopes to sell a billion copies (he seems to think in billions). Imagine if he does sell a billion copies. I’m looking for the current numbers, and don’t know what Amazon keeps but even if he gets $1 a book, that’s one hell of a profit (over $1.5 billion).

You’ve heard of blog to book deals. The newest rendition of this is blog to ebook.  And you won’t need a book deal or publisher. All you need is some big success and a lot of friends. Cuban has over 330k friends on Facebook and 760k followers on Twitter.

The book is basically a compilation of Cuban’s blog posts you can read free on his blog. But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming an instant bestseller. It’s titled: “How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.” I like this interview with Mark Cuban about his book and life.

I love this line, it just strikes me as so amazing: Of all your business ventures, the profit margin for this book is unmatched. Much of the book already had appeared as blog posts, and the production, promotion and distribution costs were negligible.

I love to use Twitter to find great headlines. Here’s a few about this story:

The Book World Is Changing: Mark Cuban Creates A Best Seller Out Of Some Blog Posts

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hopes for a slam dunk with his new e-book

I’m buying it to see how it differs (in format) from his blog and to read it in one concise place on my Kindle. But really I’m reading it to see what all the hoopla is about. And to learn.

Check out

Mark Cuban’s book on Amazon

In related news, the Justice Department is looking into if Apple is keeping prices for ebooks artificially high.

The bloggers in Utah are a close community. We have a secret Facebook Page with over 300 members (you should too) to communicate and share information with each other. I’ve both hosted and attended several events. Recently I participated in a blog tour of The Shoppes at Riverwoods – an outdoor mall in Provo, Utah.

We stopped at a toy store, an ice cream shop, a gift store and a restaurant. We get to meet the owners of each and learn more about local businesses. You can forget that each shop was started by someone who is passionate about their business.

Good bloggers are also good storytellers who can tell people about you through pictures and words. Blog posts usually rank well in search engines meaning that people who search for your business may read a first hand account about the business from a blog post.

Unfortunately, a lot of bloggers don’t use keywords in their blog post titles or links (even if you ask them to).  If you search “Utah toy store” my blog post is the 3rd result in Google. I guarantee that my neighborhood blog does not get the most traffic or have a devoted following, but anytime someone wants to find a toy store in Utah, they could find my post and decide to go to Blinkenstaff’s (which I highly recommend doing).

Unless you’re a blog with a huge following you probably won’t see an immediate affect on sales or even traffic from getting a lot of blog posts written about your product. To me it’s really about the search benefit and of course the word of mouth. Many have strong Facebook followings and are posting to Facebook, Twitter and maybe even checking in on Facebook or Foursquare.

Another benefit is that the bloggers themselves often become loyal customers. I know I plan to head back to Blinkenstaff’s to do some Christmas shopping.

My favorite blogging event is hosting or attending restaurant tastings, but we’ve also attended movie openings. Bloggers love to get to know and network with other bloggers. In the best case, it’s a win for everyone. Have you hosted a blogger event or would you like to? How did it go? Tell me about it in the comments.

This past week I went back to work after maternity leave. I’m starting off with just one day a week, going to two days in a few months. While it was a little difficult thinking of leaving my 2 month old baby for an entire day, I also realized it was time. I needed to get back to work again to save my own sanity and Alexis is getting some great bonding time with grandma.

I realized years ago that I don’t do well making friends with other moms. Much like at work, just having one close friend at work makes a huge difference in your happiness. I haven’t found that friend at home and I’m going nuts. I’m social and hate being alone most of the day. Which is why I go into work at least once a week now.

When I left I trained someone to do my job. She did so well I didn’t even worry about things while I was gone. That was such a relief. When I returned I realized a few things:

1- My temporary replacement was better at doing my job than I was.

2- I don’t think she had another job lined up.

3- The plan I had wasn’t going to work as I’d hoped.

Things had also changed dramatically in the company since I left. I have a new boss and team. With all of the changes I haven’t gotten updates and some of tasks I did have been assigned to others. At first I panicked. It’s not uncommon for someone to take your place while you’re on maternity leave. I could’ve been angry or threatened and demanded or fought to get my position back. Instead I saw it as an opportunity to be creative (one of my strengths).

It’s not unusual for a woman to get passed over for a promotion or lose a position because she takes maternity leave. Look what happened over at TechCrunch.

My solution? I’m creating a premium version of the product I started (a blog network). I still get to work with bloggers but now I’m just working with the best. The group will be much smaller but that will free me up to be partners with them and develop more creative solutions for our clients. I get to pass off some of the parts I didn’t like about my job to my replacement. She’ll have more work and I will too. I see it as a win.

Why am I blogging about this? I want other women in the workforce to consider these issues. I also want to show that when you feel threatened you can fight the change or you can make a change. Usually there are solutions you don’t see at first. Look for them. Most of all I want women to stand up for themselves and to think ahead and plan — something that took me years to learn.