What Social Media Marketers Can Learn From the Marx Brothers

The Marx Brother’s career spanned several decades and multiple mediums, from vaudeville and broadway to print, radio, film and television. They seamlessly traversed mediums and continuously expanded their fan base with engaging content that hit all the right notes.

The Brothers were adept at using myriad mediums in concert to support their endeavors and this is what savvy social media marketers are doing today.

When creating a content strategy for a new client, first consider the audience and the forms of media they prefer to consume. Then, consider the ways you can increase the longevity and scope of one form of content by offering it in several mediums.

For example; you can generate a podcast from a video interview and then feature its transcription in a blog post and schedule the release of all three over the period of 7 days. By offering the same content in multiple mediums you extend its reach, maximize its potential and engage your audience in the formats they enjoy.

Experiment, have fun and above all, engage!

6 Sexy Social Media Resources

The Social Media explosion has yielded Gurus, Experts and myriad companies offering advice on Social Media Marketing, SEO, Best Practices and a wealth of related topics. These 6 resources are among the best in terms of quality and consistency and it’s my pleasure to recommend them all:

Seth Godin

Seth is the father of permission marketing and one of the most progressive minds in media. His daily blog offers valuable insights as he explores challenging the status quo, how ideas spread, marketing, conquering fear, being a linchpin and how to lead and be a champion. Consistently ahead of the curve with an omni present value proposition, I recommend subscribing to his blog and reading his books. Every one a best seller.

Brian Solis

Brian wrote the book on Social Media Marketing, literally! ‘Engage’ is the blue print to understanding the medium and succeeding within it. He breaks down the roles and importance of anthropology, sociology and ethnography, the various social networks, communities & tools and the importance of engaging people with empathy across the Social Web. Every SM marketer should study ‘Engage’, it’s worth its weight in gold. His blog also rocks!

Social Times

This is a great resource for social media news, strategy, marketing, community, apps, etc. A must read if ever there was one.

All Facebook

“The Unofficial Facebook Resource” – ‘All Facebook’ delivers Facebook news, app stats, page stats and best of all offers a Services Directory connecting employers looking for top talent to Facebook marketers, developers and third party app providers. The best resource for all things Facebook.

Hubspot

This Inbound Marketing Company is a key resource for SM marketers offering webinars, SEO tools, social media tips and strategies, content management and analytics tools. They provide an abundance of educational material to keep you on top of your game and best of all they feature Dan Zarella!

Dan Zarella

Dan is an award winning, Zombie loving Social Media Scientist who studies social media behavior from a data-backed position providing key insights for best current practices in SMM. He recently released The Facebook Marketing Book and his Science of Retweets Report explains how marketers can earn more ReTweets through linguistics, word selection, type of content and best times of day and week to Tweet. He also created TweetPsych, a linguistic analysis tool that allows users to generate psychological profiles of Twitter users based on the contents of their Tweets.

The intelligence reflected in the content provided by these 6 Sexy Resources and the generosity with which they share it is a testament to their integrity and continued dedication to enhancing everyone’s experience in the Social Web. I hope you enjoy their work as much I do. In the immortal words of Jean-Luc Picard, “Engage!”

Community Management 3.0 is the Nu Sex

The roll of Community Manager albeit relatively new to the corporate realm, is amongst the most valuable in a company’s social media program. They are the front line of engagement for the brands they represent. However, all too often companies assign an intern or entry-level employee the position and this is a mistake.

Underestimating the influential and public nature of social media inevitably yields grievous errors, often in 140 characters or less. A prime example is Kenneth Cole’s recent Twitter Gaffe:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC.

KC’s tweets are now run through a filter before hitting the social web. Some lessons only need to be learned once!

A great community manager is worth their weight in gold and possess a specific set of characteristics:

1. They truly love people.
2. They are genuinely empathic with those with whom they engage.
3. They can establish a natural rapport with just about anyone.
4. They are emotionally intelligent.

Not to be sexist, but women tend to have a higher level of efficacy in this role over their male counter parts. And with good reason; the softer female communication style is often more effective on social networks as they have a tendency to engage rather than instruct which is a major asset. Plus, they can talk about just about anything and love to do so.

Competent community managers, engage consumers with a voice that is indicative of the brands they represent while simultaneously aligning their communication style with the culture of the social network they are using at any given time. They simultaneously keep track of myriad conversations on multiple networks and are personable, consistent and helpful.

They do not engage trolls or fall into conversational traps and know when to “join in” or “bud out”. Not every discussion requires their presence and like every relationship, sometimes people just need some time with other friends.

Successful community managers can repair damaged relations with consumers caused by poor service or dissatisfaction with a product often times earning loyal customers in the process. They can build a fan base of targeted followers and inject a brand’s marketing message into their conversations in a transparent and meaningful way that resonates with their audience.

As social media continues to evolve and its perceived value to companies along with it community manager version 3.0 will be recognized as a linchpin in the marketing machine and beyond. Nu Sex here but it does make for a catchy title.