I recently participated in a social media campaign as a blogger and learned a lot from it. It took place in Utah but it has principles that could apply to your business. My friend Jyl did a great job working with the bloggers on this campaign and consulting with the client on what goes into a successful event.

Who: Goldsmith Jewelers in Provo, Utah
Goal: increase foot traffic to store (1 location)
How:

• Invite local bloggers to a special event commpelling enough to draw them in. You must provide a lot of value because they aren’t paid, they’re busy and they have lots of offers from brands. Make it worth their time (read: you’re going to need to spend some cash – but do it right and it will be more than worth it).
• Communicate with us regularly before and after the event.

Online Presence (Before): they don’t have a great web site, no blog, and before now had never done social media and had no presence on social networks.

Results (After): Facebook profile, many blog posts on popular blogs (example, example), Flickr feed, lots of foot traffic to the store. Google “Goldsmith Jewelers, Utah” and one of the blog posts is already #2 and this just happened last week. Since I’m a little competitive I’m hoping this post will show up on the first page As I love to suggest for events like this, use PitchEngine for a social media press release (could be updated with video and photos though).

Most helpful: Giving bloggers images, sample Twitter posts with a link and Facebook Wall suggestions. Being open about expectations after the evening.

Jyl worked with a PR firm and identified key women who blog or are active on social media (mom blogs).  It’s vital that you work with someone who “gets” the culture and can interface with bloggers and build credibility. You must be compelling enough that they will come and participate. You must frame it well. There’s also a LOT of planning/managing involved.

Bloggers were invited to a red carpet event. We literally walked on red carpet, had our pictures taken and ate great food. We each got gift bags including product information (images, etc), product catalog, and a strand of pearls. They cleaned our wedding rings (mine has not been this sparlkly since I got it). The best part though was to be among other bloggers and get to know some of the local big shots.

The jewelry store was debuting a new line they are carrying called Pandora. We each got a bracelet and a charm and could buy more at a discount. I got one called “happy little bird” in honor of Twitter.

In addition, there were prize drawings and everyone got coupons for a free strand of pearls to give away on their blogs. Others got gift certificates to use as a giveaway.

This was much different than my experience with tech bloggers. We couldn’t wait to see what each other writes and comment on each other’s blogs. We’re very interactive online. We talk a lot in real life but it’s a different tone. It’s more like what we’re doing professionally and new technology we’re using. Then catching up on local goings on with others in the group.

With the mom blog crowd it was more like talking to a group of girlfriends. We talk about everything. We are vocal about what works and what doesn’t. However, the posts are written for the readers and not for each other.

My advice

Goldsmith should have their best rep who really knows the new line preview it in detail for us. Create profiles for everyone (in writing). Take our wrist size and preferences. Show us everything. Helps us assemble a bracelet that we’d like, writing down all of the beads we would need. Then give us a copy and keep one on file (for gifts in the future – we could send our husbands in to pick up if we wanted to). THEN take us to pick out our bracelet and bead.

Don’t market to us overtly but let us know about the discount and make it quick to purchase anything we choose while we were there. This is a balance but I felt they could’ve been more open to some marketing.

I also would’ve put a stipulation on the strand of pearls – either put a minimum purchase on it ($25) or ask people to preview the line and give feedback – a quick 5 mins.)

I’m not a mom blogger and generally speaking I don’t have local reach on my blog. I do have a more local following on Facebook and I write a neighborhood blog (which I keep thinking of expanding to Utah in general).

Next: I hope Goldsmith will invest in a new web site or blog with a gift bag and links to individual products. Great example of PR 2.0!

No, I’m not becoming a review blogger! I blogged about how I wanted to try out Lotus Jump and the company let me try it out. Lotus Jum a content management system to help you manage a Do-It-Yourself SEO campaign. It’s a great way to break down all of the SEO tasks you need to do.

If you’re like most people who has ideas, starts web sites or blog, and then doesn’t promote them online, Lotus Jump can help. It will help you stay on task and organized. When you measure something and get reports it helps you stick to it when there’s no boss or deadline.

Here are my thoughts

PRO

• They identify ways to get links for you and link directly to the place to go to submit a directory listing, a blog comment, a Yahoo Answer, etc.
• Very intuitive and easy to use. You select a task, delete it or complete it. It gives a short explanation of the site and what to do.
• Reports show you where your competitors have links, links you have, and tasks completed.
• They give you the code to link to your site with a specific keyword phrase.
• Saves you time identifying opportunities for you to get links.
• Gives a short list of how to use the site and where to put links.

CONS

• Not enough variety of links. For example, mine was a blog and it only had a few blog directories but I now there are many more. It would rock if it identified related Wikipedia entries you could post on.
• It assumes some SEO basics such as where and how often to use your keyword phrase as a link.
• The link is not to a specific related page but to the home page. However it does insert the link text for you: Example: press release writer when it should link directly to my press release services page of my blog (or web site if I had one).

I didn’t see the social profile parts, which I’m also interested in.

Lotus Jump is pretty reasonably priced and you can add another domain to your account for an additional $19 a month or go for the pro account for $50. I think the pro account should let you have more domains.

You must already know what keyword phrases you want to target, which is part of the battle for some. It would be nice if they helped with that part – even linking to tools to help you gauge the competition and/or demand for phrases relating to your business. That could be a value-add service. They could also add press release distribution tasks on the top free or paid sites (they could ask me for help on that!).

Questions: Can I add my own tasks? I saw the article suggestions but not the submission process.

Nice endorsement from Anita Campbell (who I have immense respect for) on the front page of the site:

Bottom line: It’s easy to get distracted on what you need to do to market your web site. On a basic level Lotus Jump will help you by giving you tasks and keeping track of them for you. I don’t know of anything else like it and the price is pretty fair.

Online contests of all sorts are a popular way to get new links or blog posts about your business. I’ve seen examples of well-run contests but two stand out as bad examples of how to run a contest. Contests are a way to generate substantial awareness and create goodwill with everyone who enters, so don’t alienate people. If someone doesn’t win you don’t want to leave them with a negative feeling about your business. For many it may be the first time they interact with your brand.

The same principle applies to different types of rejection (see this WSJ article about how various colleges reject people and the aftertaste it leaves applicants). Basically you can burn bridges, confuse people, or anger them based on how you handle things. Conversely, you can be straightforward, warm, and encouraging while still letting them know they didn’t win but you appreciate their contribution.

When it comes to blogging, no matter what the entry says you get a link to your site. You also expose your business to new audiences and generate free publicity. If you treat people well they could become customers. Also, bloggers talk to others and you hope that they say good things about you (or at least mostly good).

Good Practices

1. Tell the winners – don’t make them read the comments to know if they won – email them.
2. Be clear and specific about how the contest works and what you’re looking for – state the criteria and how you’ll select a winner. Avoid vague statements like: “The finalists are voted on publicly so it won’t hurt to get some early fans!” Does this mean there’s a voting piece (with everyone or just the few who entered?)
3. Make blog posts along the way to encourage people.
4. Blog on the day the entries are closed. Announce the winners or let people know when you will. Tell them what is happening next.
5. Run the contest by a few bloggers and ask for their feedback. How you word things and what you ask for might not be realistic.
6. Give feedback about the entries if they are subjective so people have an idea what you are looking for.

If you only have a few entries tell everyone who entered by email – tell them thanks for entering.

What NOT to do:

1. Plan a large media blitz and advertise like crazy with a certain deadline and then extend it by several weeks. You just lose momentum and probably won’t get very many more responses. Don’t drag it on too long because again, you lose momentum. A local day spa did this and inspired this post.
2. Go dark. If you’re in social media you have to be social. Yes, that takes energy. You can feed into the energy created or you can kill it or let it go dormant. By participating in the conversation you encourage and build momentum. You create more reminders of your business. If you go dark people may forget about the contest or you.
3. Delete comments that people make that you don’t like. It creates bad will. Unless they are personal attacks or offensive I usually allow comments even if I don’t like what the person says.

I’m not perfect at running online contests and I rarely do them. I have no economic incentive to run a contest, but when my book is done that could change.

Feedback?

Tell me what you’ve learned about running online contests.