Do you want to learn how to use social media marketing? Google it! I promise, at least one of the 704,000,000 results will have your answer!! We don't need another blog post on the subject!

Crikey!!

Here's the question that most businesses need to answer:

Am I going to use social media marketing?

All the expert blog posts in the world won't do squat for you if you read them but never put their advice into action.

The #1 reason social media marketing doesn't work isn't because you're doing it wrong, it's because you aren't doing it at all!

A recent Mashable article claims that 81% of small and medium sized businesses use social media and that 94% of those do so for marketing purposes. The report says that for SMB's social media is the preferred marketing channel (You can download the entire report here).

I'm calling BS.

It is my business to to talk to SMB's about their marketing efforts. I do it almost every day. And while my information is anecdotal and the report referenced is from a online study, my experience does not come close to matching these numbers. Most businesses are NOT using social media.

Most of you know you aren't using social media in sort of a formal planned manner that is being measured and evaluated based on results. You're just not. In fact, most of you tell me you either don't think you need it (you're wrong), you don't have time (you're wrong), or you don't know how (you're right).

So I dug further into the report. It turns out that the study's definition of using social media includes reading it! Well there you go! Now I'm actually surprised to learn that only 81% of SMB's are reading social media! 20% aren't? What are they doing?

I'm pretty sure the companies using social media marketing the best and the most are the ones writing all these millions of blog posts on how to use social media marketing. Most of them know of what they speak (but there's really not enough subject matter to have to write about it a million times). They know that social media marketing is raising their profile in search engines, helping them to become established experts, and generally growing their exposure.

You can do this, too. An you should!

Do you know anything about your business? (Of course). Are any of the things you know of value to your customers and prospects? (Of course). Do you think they're searching online for answers you can provide? (Yep!). When they do that, are they finding your answers? (Doubtful. INstead they're finding someone else's, maybe your competitor's!).

You need to get committed to social media marketing. You can find a reason to do it (to grow your sales), you can find the time (minutes per day), and you can figure out how (read some of those blog posts, or hired someone who has)!

The reason social media marketing is not working for you isn't because you haven't read enough online articles on the subject, it's because you haven't followed those articles' example and put the method to work!

So please, no more blog posts on how to use social media marketing! Let's focus instead on putting all that information to use to grow your business!

So what about you? Are you committed to using social media marketing?

I am as big a fan of the Winter Olympics as anyone and you can bet I'll be watching. As much as I'll be watching as a fan, though, I'll be watching also as a marketer. And as much as I'm sure I'll enjoy the events, the Sochi Olympics are a marketer's nightmare - every bit as bad or worse than the Super Bowl.

I'll get to the questionable marketing value in a bit, but first, let's talk about associating a brand with the ideas and ideals put forth by the Russian government.

The Winter Olympic Games should be a great promotional opportunity for corporate sponsors, as outstanding athletes compete in exciting,  good-natured competition and companies get to attach their logos to all the warm fuzzy goodwill being generated. Unfortunately, the Sochi Olympics will be different. While the Olympic ideal separates politics form competition, Russia's lousy human rights record and out-of-date anti-gay stances bring politics to the forefront putting the the ten major corporate sponsors between a rock and hard place.

The mayor of Sochi has claimed that the host city of the Winter Olympics has no gay residents, but that homosexuals would be welcomed to attend the games.

How congenial! Interesting that a reporter for the BBC's Panorama program claims to have visited gay bars in Sochi! Maybe these have only been opened for the gay tourists who have been welcomed so long as they don't "impose their habits on others."

Big corporate sponsors like Coca Cola don't just sit on the sideline and milk the promotional opportunities. They have a seat at the table, they influence how things get run. The positive record Coca Cola has on issues like gay rights in the US can get blown out of the water in a hurry at the Sochi Olympics.

While you can count on the corporate media to downplay the gay rights issues on the air, Coca Cola and McDonald's have both already been hit by protests against their support of the Sochi Olympics.

Near Chicago, a group of protesters stood in front of McDonald’s headquarters with a banner that read, “McDonald’s: Stop funding homophobia.”

Trucks with billboards that said, “Speak out against Russia’s anti-gay laws” circled Coca-Cola’s headquarters in October.

Corporations pay an estimated $100 million to become a major Olympic sponsor. You read that correctly - $100,000,000! On top of this, they pump massive investment into related marketing campaigns.

So quick, name me three sponsors of the last summer Olympics and the products they promoted. Did you drink more Coke or eat another Big Mac because of an ad you watched? I can tell you I purchased all kids of stuff since the last Summer Olympics and not any of it because the company was associated with the games!

Of course I understand that marketing at the global level means more than immediate purchase. There are case studies showing how Coca Cola's sponsorship of the 1964 games in Tokyo, Japan helped them to expand bottling and distribution in that country. But at this point, is there anywhere Coca Cola doesn't have bottling and distribution? I can't imagine where that might be, but maybe you know?

For their $100 million McDonald's got their #CheersToSochi hashtag campaign hijacked by gay rights activists. LGBT protesters have been dumping cans of Coke in the street from the US to South Africa. Maybe this is why Coca Cola's normally ubiquitous Olympics advertising has been all but invisible this year? Have you seen a McDonald's ad yet?

Companies sponsor events like the Sochi Olympics for the, "Halo Effect." The feel good vibe brought on by the camaraderie, sportsmanship and athletic achievement. But what happens when that turns upside down? What happens when there are photos of toilets that can't handle toilet paper, unfinished hotel rooms, undrinkable water, unfinished streets, and the killing of stray dogs? For the first time, Olympic sponsorship has incredible marketing risk.

With dubious ROI to begin with, and increasing safety risk for athletes and attendees, the Sochi Olympics are a marketer's nightmare. For sponsors, this could be even worse than the Super Bowl! Enjoy the games! Then on to Brazil for World Cup this summer and 2016 Olympics where things are, well, pretty damn bad, too.

Other than two, the Super Bowl commercials all failed. What's that you say? The blog-o-sphere and social media would argue with me, I know.

Let's start with the fact that over 45 commercials aired during the Super Bowl. Can you remember 12? 8? 5? Not easy, is it? Oh well, $4 million ain't what it used to be anyway.

But forget all that. The goal of advertising isn't be getting the blog-o-sphere and social media to write about your cleverness - well maybe it is if you;re a creative and looking to boost your own value.

The goal of any advertising should be to sell product! And by that measure, no matter how many ads you remember, I stand by the statement that the Super Bowl commercials all failed - except two.

Bob Dylan says I should let Germans make my beer. Frankly, I think my local micro-brewery does a fine job. I'm not above drinking a Coors Light, either. I'm not to even getting into the fact that Chrysler is no longer an American company! Nice of Fiat to run a patriotic ad, but I promise no one added, "Go buy a Chrysler" to their to-do list after seeing the commercial. Fail.

GoDaddy celebrated a 36-year old engineer quitting her job to join the ranks of the self-employed. Does GoDaddy know that the US is experiencing the worst long term unemployment crisis since the Great Depression. Do you think more viewers were interested in quitting their job or in finding one? I'm doubting there was a rush of people quitting their jobs Monday morning so they could set up a GoDaddy ecommerce site. Fail.

Don Cheadle riding in a limo drinking Bud Light? OK, Don Cheadle likely rides in a limo and might as well drink Bud Light. And football viewers drink beer. But I missed how this was supposed to motivate me to switch from Coors Light, so I didn't. Fail.

There must be millions who enjoy looking at David Beckham, so congratulations to H&M. Whoever they are... Hopefully, for Beckham's sake, they sell underwear. Wait! Beckham does underwear ads for Armani! Who forgot to tell H&M? Fail.

My whole life men like me, and women, too, have lusted for an exotic sports car like a Maserati. But I'm confused. Doesn't selling a car for the same price as a Hyundai Equus kind of take the bloom off the rose? Not to mention the fact that Maserati is owned by Fiat, the company that was espousing Detroit-built cars in their Chrysler ad. I'm guessing sales of $70,000 Maserati's might increase this year - from zero to some - so maybe this ad wasn't a complete fail... Unless, of course, you enjoyed brand presige among the elite who liked knowing they own an exotic automobile. Fail+.

Radio Shack is leaving the '80's behind? Shouldn't they have done that in the '90's? When was the last time you bought a radio, anyway? Maybe they need more than a store redesign. (Personal note, I participated in a College AMA competition to help re-brand Radio Shack, well, in the 80's... They didn't follow our advice.) Fail.

I could go on, and on. But there were two exceptions, commercials that proved paid ads can work and work right now:

1. Bank of America's ad with U2 to support RED.
2. Esurance's #EsuranceSave30 commercial.

What did these two do to succeed? They were the only two to acknowledge that you watched the entire game with your phone/tablet in your hand or within reach and asked you to do something with it. And, in return, millions took action! Right there on the spot!

Esurance got 200,000 #EsuranceSave30 tweets in the first minute and has increased their twitter followers by 90,000 since the ad aired!! (Oh, and they saved 30% of the commercial cost by running the ad after the game finished!) Win!

Bank of America, well, really U2, asked you to download a free song from their forthcoming album and in return Bank of America will donate $1 per download to the Global Fund to fund AIDS programs on the ground in Africa. While download numbers aren't available, Bank of America committed up to $8 million so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that millions of us took the requested action. I know I did. Win!

As for all those other ads that failed? They failed because they didn't do what the Bank of America/U2 and Esurance did. They didn't ask us to DO anything. They offered us 30- or 60-seconds of feel good, maybe a chuckle, as often a head-shake as anything, but they didn't ask us to DO anything - so we didn't and we won't!

Calls-to-action driving outcomes need to be the driving force behind your advertising. A hashtag or a URL in your ad doesn't cut it anymore. Your ads need to be tied to specific action - something you can measure!

If you don't ask your customers and prospects to do anything, chances are pretty darn high they won't! Because of this simple premise, the Super Bowl commercials all failed - except two.

What do you think? Let's discuss below!

Are there marketing lessons you can learn from Super Bowl XLVIII? You bet! And I don't mean from reviewing the commercials, either!

What did you notice as the biggest difference between the winning Seattle Seahawks and the demolished Denver Broncos in in Super Bowl XLVIII? Did the Seahawks step it up a notch? Were the Broncos ill-prepared? Did the Broncos choke?

What in the world does this have to do with marketing? Hang with me, I'm getting there.

Both teams are filled with elite athletes that train at the highest levels. Both teams had outstanding seasons and playoff victories over tough opponents, and no one would have guessed in advance that Super Bowl XLVIII would be as one-sided as it turned out to be.

So what made the difference and what does this have to do with marketing??

The difference in the game last night, and the lesson you can apply to your marketing is simple: The Seattle Seahawks did nothing different in preparation for Super Bowl XLVIII than they had done all year. The Denver Broncos, on the other hand, decided that in order to win they were going to have to step it up a notch - and believe it or not, that almost never works!

What's that you say? The biggest game of the year and you don't have to step it up a notch? Exactly!

On the football field, plays are made in fractions of a second. The difference between a completed pass and a hit on Peyton Manning that forces an interception is half a step. So you tell me, who is going to be faster, the player who is doing the exact same thing he's been working on since training camp last August or the player who thinks he needs to step it up a notch and try to remember what it is he's going to do different to win the game? The player who stays with what has worked and plays without thinking is always going to have that split-second advantage.

Are the Seahawks a faster or stronger team than the Broncos? At the highest level of professional sports, the differences in speed and strength between top competitors is going to be negligible. What made the Seahawks LOOK so much faster and stronger is that they relied on habits developed from five months of training. They trusted that what they'd worked on all season long was going to work, they didn't feel a need to adjust their game.

The Broncos, on the other hand, looked out of sync all night. They looked slow and and unsure. They looked like they weren't sure what was going to work. They stopped doing what had worked all season long and tried to do a little bit more. But a little bit more means changing things, changing things means re-learning, rel-learning means trying to remember, and thinking means the Broncos weren't reacting. This made them look like a slower and weaker team from the opening kickoff on.

OK, but this is a marketing blog, not a sports training one. How can you as a marketer learn from the Broncos mistake in how they approached the game? Very simply.

Marketing has changed. It's no longer about warm and fuzzy, no longer about making the CEO feel good about seeing his company name in lights. Marketing is about results and that means sales.

How many times have you sat in a marketing meeting when an executive said, "We need to do something different. We need to really stand out." Why? What does that even mean?

What marketers need to do to deliver better results to the bottom line is be better - not different. A cute ad might attract attention, but what does that matter if the message is reaching the wrong audience, customers can't figure out how to buy the product, or the product doesn't live up to the promise?

It's the marketer's job to create repeatable, measurable activitities that drive the desired results. In order to do this, they need to test, measure, and tweak. They need to learn, embrace, and love data.

Take your web site, for instance. You pay a design firm to build you a web site. You fill it will all the great stuff about your company, you show pictures of your products and happy customers, the CEO signs off, you launch, and then... nothing.

Of course! Where in the process of your web site design did you map out the desired results and how you were going to achieve them? Most companies never do! Instead they "Step it up a notch," they do something, "better."

Before you can do something better, you need to define "better." If better is being more clever and cute than the competition, then you're goal likely isn't more sales. But if better means incrementally improving upon what you know has led to success, you're on the right track!

The Seattle Seahawks knew that being better meant incremental improvement, improvement so slight, it might have been barely noticeable. The Broncos stepped it up, and as we saw, that almost never works!

The only thing that has grown faster than Content Marketing is the number of "Content Marketing Experts."

Googling "content marketing experts" returns 104,200,000 results. You might as well Google "story tellers"! Though that only returned 2,380,000 results...

At its root, content marketing starts with story telling. Every business has a story to tell. And who can tell the story of your business and the problems you solve for your customers better than you?

That's not to say your story can't be edited, reformatted for social media, slideshare, YouTube, etc., and presented differently than your first draft. It can, and in most cases should be. But don't believe that anyone is going to be a better content marketing expert for your company than you are!

So here's the hitch: How do you find time to tell your story on top of everything else you have to do?

You don't have to!

"Well, wait a minute, Jon," you say, "You just told me no one is better at telling my story than I am and now you tell me I don't have to tell it?"

Exactly! And unless you are trained writer and/or marketer, I would suggest in most cases that you don't.

Does it seem like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth here? Well, I'm not. Let me explain.

Content marketing requires strategy, tactics and measurement. Skip any of those three peices and you might as well scrap the whole thing. The part you play as expert of your own company is in working to help develop the strategy.

Here are the pieces you need to bring to a content marketing partner's table:

- A definition of your ideal customer(s).
- An outline of your business goals.
- A definition of your value proposition.
- A series of success stories.
- The Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) you measure or want to measure.

With this information, any content marketing partner worth her salt has more than enough to begin telling your story.

By the end of 2014, content marketing can be a major contributor to your business success. Don't let your lack of knowledge of content marketing keep you from getting started. You're already a content marketing expert, whether you know it or not!

The buzz around Content Marketing is hard to miss. In fact, a new study from eConsultancy reports that 90% of respondents believe content marketing will increase in importance in the coming year.

However, the same report shows that only 38% of companies have a content marketing strategy in place.

Why the disconnect? 73% of digital marketers agree that brands are becoming publishers and 64% believe content marketing is becoming its own discipline (we'd argue that it always has been). Yet no strategy to support the effort? That's nuts!

Content marketing stratey has to begin with an objective. Yet the survey shows that even when an objective is set, only 2 of the top 6 content marketing objectives are directly related to revenue (#4 - Increased Sales, #6 Generate Leads).

In our book, content marketing is all about sales revenue. While it's important to increase engagement, site traffic, and brand awareness those objectives must be tied to sales or why bother.

- What good is engagement if it doesn't generate a sales lead?
- Why measure site traffic if you aren't using your web site drive sales?
- What does it matter if the world knows your brand but everyone buys from your competitor?

Today's metrics driven marketing means that every activity can be followed from contact to lead to sales and beyond. Don't use content marketing to increase your SEO results, use your SEO results to increase sales!

If you're adding content marketing to your mix this year, and you should be, be sure you understand why. If you aren't building your content marketing strategy to drive sales, our results show that you won't stay with it. Why not? Well, because you aren't seeing any bottom line benefit!!

There can be no doubt as to the massive undertaking involved in building the Obamacare Healthcare.gov portal for the national healthcare exchange. Just the thought of one system needing to securely interact with dozens of health insurance companies' non-related systems in real time is mind boggling. But even with the media focus on technology snafus, the bigger issue is overcoming the initial customer experience.

Rule #1 of online marketing is to be helpful. Provide information upfront to establish credibility. People are strapped for time, they may or may not want to buy a new insurance policy (many are being forced into the exchange). You certainly don't want to push around your customers, forcing them to click and buy. Don't hide crucial information behind registration walls (just ask any media company!). But, by all reports, healthcare.gov goes against this key tenant of customer experience.

Rule #2 is to make your customers time more productive and their lives simpler. It's difficult enough to get a prospect to your web site the first time. Getting them back after you've wasted thier time is near impossible (granted, people may not have a choice in our current example, but they do with your business!). People are looking for your web site to solve a problem, not to create one!

Rule #3, test your offers. All of your customers do not fit a single profile and one offer is not going to satisfy everyone. But, test the offers on your homepage. You can collect data on which are converting and which leave your customers wanting. Is Healthcare.gov's best message really to announce "The Health Insurance Marketplace is Now Open"? What if instead the message was, "You are 8 clicks away from your new health plan"? This second one answers how long the process is going to take and what the result will be when I'm done. The current home page offers, well, nothing...

Rule #4, longterm success depends on a customer experience that builds trust and loyalty. The Obama administration has beat the bushes to find someone, anyone, who has had a good experience on the web site. This is exactly the opposite of the ideal scenario. Is anyone going to recommend healthcare.gov to their family and friends? It sure doesn't sound like it. Have follow up communications channels been established? Are consumers getting copies of the data being submitted to the insurance companies? Are return visitors being recognized by the site?

The only advantage that Obamacare has, given the incredibly bad initial customer experience, is the leverage they hold mandating insurance coverage. Unfortunately for you, you don't have the same hammer. If you aren't providing a top notch customer experience, you can bet your customers are going to look elsewhere to find one. 

Whether you drink whiskey, or any alcohol for that matter, chances are pretty good you've heard of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Southern Comfort, and Johnny Walker. But what about Fireball? You know, the hottest drink in bars and clubs everywhere? Fireballs' success is the perfect illustration of the small business advantage in digital marketing.

Fireball Whisky has been on the market in the US since only 2007 and has grown to represent 7% dollar share for its customers  - all without running a traditional marketing campaign. No advertising, no mailers, no free shots poured at on-premise promotions. Nope, Fireball broke through by tweeting to bartenders!

Check out Fireball's Twitter stream and what you'll find is a textbook example of social interaction. Fireball interacts directly, one-to-one, with customers all day long. They tweet directly to bartenders with drink recipes and sharing recipes bartenders have created (Fireball Whisky Applesauce anyone?).

What did they do that any small business can do?

1. They determined a target audience - in Fireball's case, bartenders.
2. They spent time listening to bartenders on Twitter and other social media to learn what bartenders need. It turns out one the top things bartenders are looking for to help them and their bar stand out is new drink recipes.
3. They built a list of bartenders' twitter addresses.
4. They began tweeting drink recipes directly to individual bartenders - not spamming them with email that doesn't get read. 

In a nutshell, Fireball did way with the campaign mentality and used digital for what it's best at, conversations. This allowed them to be more interactive, relevant and timely than with a traditional approach.

Fireball makes their marketing about the individual, not the product. By doing so, they build real relationships - just the way we do with our friends and family. In return, they don't just have customers, but advocates! Fireball drinkers know that when they tweet to or about Fireball, they'll get a response. 

This isn't always an easy shift in mentality for marketers. It requires marketers that view their prospects and customers as people, not dollar signs. It means wanting to create longterm relationships that deliver BIG total lifetime value, not one-time transactions. It also means the small business advantage is huge since it just takes you to decide that this style of digital marketing is your future!
 

Time and resources are limited for small business owners. If too much time is spent keeping up on social networks, other important responsibilities fall by the wayside. As a small business owners myself, I empathize. However, the opportunity missed by ignoring social media can be big. We suggest the following is the least you should do to build business with social media.

Facebook:
- Determine if you will use a business page or a personal page. If you are your brand, a personal page might work better. If, however, your brand and company are bigger than just you, set up a company page.
- Set up a regular schedule to post at lease three times each week. Post specials, pictures, local and company events and news.
- Be sure to read and respond to any comments made on your posts.

Twitter:
Tweet unique promotions and discount codes. Find and follow clients and prospects. Share articles related to your business and you clients' and prospects' needs and wants.

Pinterest:
Pin pictures of your work and work locations. Pin pictures projects similar to those you do that your customers might enjoy seeing and reading about. 

LinkedIn:
Think of this as your professional network. While you might find customers on LinkedIn, you will definitely find peers and suppliers. Post company updates, new hires, and open positions. 

There was a time when businesses didn't understand the need for email or mobile phones. There will be time soon when not using social media as a growth tool will sound just as impossible.

The longer you wait because you don't “get” social media, the more it is going to hurt your revenue, brand exposure, website traffic, and potential engagement with key customers. There is always esistance to change and with small businesses there is the constant struggle to find time. Sometimes it's best to get help.

There is much more that is possible with cocial media, but that's for another day. Whether you do it yourself or outsource, the steps outlined here should take no more than few minutes each day and is the least your small business should do on social media.

Most businesses don't know they need marketing help. Well, maybe they know they need it, but they won't admit it. Sound familiar?

Sure you want to grow your business. But the budget only covers operations, sales, and product development. Marketing is luxury, right?

Here are 5 ways to recognize when you need marketing help.

1. You Don't Understand Marketing
Most of you are elbows deep in running your businesses. Your expertise shows in your products, services, and revenue. But marketing is not part of your skill set. As the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. It has nothing to do with your expertise or knowledge, just that marketing requires a different skill set.

2. Marketing is Not In Your Budget
Most often small busienesses view marketing as a discretionary expense. While sales is viewed as revenue generator, marketing is viewed as a cost. Of course, when measured properly, marketing success can be measured by knowing that the amount of revenue generated through marketing is greater than the cost. Marketing done right is an asset, not a cost. But, it's impossible to see this when there is no marketing in the budget. 

3. Marketing is Not a Priority
Your need for marketing only arises whem there is a specific and immediate need. Sales materials, broshures and booth for a trade show, a web site (that sits idly on the internet). Once you realize that your web site could be generates sales qualified leads, an email newsletter can nurture leads and keep customers informed, and your rivals are doing these things, marketing should move up the priority list!

4. You Don't Know What To Measure
You've done marketing in the past, but you're not sure if it really worked. You were hoping you phone would start ringing, but it didn't. Or if it did, you're not sure what part of the program worked or why. A good marketing prgram, particularly a digital one, can measure results on each part of the program. You can see what's working, how it's working, and when it's working. You can also see what is not working and either fix it or stop doing it. But nothing works until you know what to measure.

5. Marketers Are Always Trying to Sell You Something
Marketers talk in a language you don't uderstand, KPI's, Lead Conversion Rates, they always want to brainstorm. Who has time for that? That all may be true, but good marketers know what success looks like and how to measure it. They typically have case studies t show you how they've helped other companies grows using similar strategies and tactics they are proposing you try. Think about it, would you rather have someone doing your marketing that doesn't want to sell something?

6 (Bonus). You Don't Know Where to Start
Even if you did want to market, where do you start? What skills do you need? Whom should you hire? How should you measure performance? How do you know which programs to prioritize?

If any of this sounds like you, you need marketing help. Successful, growing businesses realize that marketing has a crucial role right alongside accounting, HR, and product development and that without it their businesses would be missing an important revenue driver.

Let the other guy be one that doesn't realize how marketing can grow his business. Dial up your marketing and grow right by them! Marketing needs to be part of your mix if you're to enjoy the success you deserve!