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!”

Permission 2 Engage

We are now in the era of permission marketing where consumers grant brands and the marketers who represent them permission to engage.

With the birth of television came the TV industrial complex. A system of sales and marketing where corporations would buy air time on all three television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) interrupt viewers’ experiences with commercials that generated sales. If a corporation wanted to increase sales, they ran more ads. It was a simple yet effective model.

The TV industrial complex generated substantial revenues for the better part of five decades until Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web.  The Internet has enhance the evolution of human communications, connectivity, social interaction and media consumption. Consumers now choose what to experience and are consummate experts at avoiding interruption marketing messages.

“Marketers must earn the right to deliver anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want to get them.” – Seth Godin

As consumer attention diminishes advertisers respond by increasing the number of media channels and marketing messages vying for their attention. These practices are counter productive and corporations are waking up to the etiquette and advantages of social media marketing.

Welcome to a world where consumers grant brands permission to engage with fun and interactive experiences. The quality of the experience is enhanced by the quality of the relationship.

Once someone has granted you permission to engage you must do so with respect and empathy. It’s important to realize that you must give in order to receive and if what you’re offering has value, people will share it. This is good, you want people to share their experience because the more people that connect with your brand larger your will become and your market will grow.

Get comfortable with the idea of giving, the return will exceed your investment and quite possibly your expectations.

Tribes

Social media has unleashed the anthropological nature of man. Once again, we live in a world of tribes.

There are tribes for every human interest. Some are corporate, some are beautiful, some love beer and others music. There’s even a tribe that watches fully dressed women blow up balloons until they burst.

Social networking has provided the platforms for tribes to engage, interact, share, create and exchange media, ideas, opinions, etc.

Tribes share a purpose and identity. They have a culture all their own. Tribal leaders rage against the status quo and evoke change. They connect their tribe to the outside world, to other tribes and provide a clear focus.  They are charismatic and influential and their followers are true believers.

“The market for something to believe in is infinite.” – Hugh MacLeod

The amazing thing about tribal interaction is that it flows in all directions. Information is freely exchanged among members, not just from leaders to followers but from one to many and many to all.

Social media allows you to create your own tribe by engaging people with experiences. If your offering is great and worthy of sharing, your tribe will grow.

Connecting with people and building relationships is the key to success.

The first step is to be remarkable.