Social Media and the "6 Step Process"

It never gets old hearing how social media is the "new" way to go, and how it's on such a rise, that it is the "answer" to all our prayers and that it may be what we should focus all our time and energy on. Yet as to every argument there is the second side that says; "no way, Social Media is a waste of time" "Facebook is only for fun" "social media is a stalkers paradise" etc. etc. etc.

To every coin there are two sides - you have to choose the winning one! Yes, both sides of the social media argument are somewhat correct in their own respective ways, however everything in life has its pros and cons.

To the social media enthusiasts - no, Social media is not the answer to all your prayers - it is a lot of work and time/energy consuming. You are right however, that one should not miss out on this great opportunity.

To the social media critics - You are right, social media can have a very negative affect on your image and yes, social media is for fun => it's for socializing = hence the name! However it is precisely because of the transparency of content on these networks that may benefit you quite a great deal!

Therefore the "6 step process" has been developed in order to answer all these questions and concerns in order to hopefully provide some kind of solution on how one can be successful using social media to its greatest potential.

Developed by KolBaKol Marketing & Solutions through an intensive 2 year research on how did social media help successful individuals and organizations achieve greater or large results. What did these individuals or organizations do or did not do that yielded the results that they produced.

KolBaKol looked at a few individuals in particular and others in general - some people that were studied were;

1. Justin Bieber - a 16 year old singer from Ontario, Canada, discovered through YouTube by Usher's team.

2. Cindy Gordon ex-VP of Marketing for Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. Marketing and creating a buzz for the new "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" theme park.

3. Troye Sivan - a 14 year old singer/actor from Perth, Austrailia - discovered via YouTube and acted as "Little Logan" in "X-Men Origins - Wolverine"

4. Susan Boyle - from "Britain's Got Talent" and,

5. Lisa Genova - author of NY Times bestseller "Still Alice"

Other individuals and organizations were also part of the research.

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1. Research your network - understand social media

This is where you research who are your surroundings, why are your potential audiences on these networks, which networks are they on? which network or platform is good for what? etc.

2. Branding and Branding Campaign

Deciding what image you would like to create for your audience and how you plan on "selling" them your image.

3. Communication and Blogging

The most important part of the 6 step process and the last one that focuses on you - this section is where you talk one on one to your audience and discuss with them what you are all about and what are your motives.

4. Monitoring and ROI

This is the first step where you will put your customers in the front! - how are they relating with your content? with your branding? and are you getting a return on your investment? are these audiences converting into clients?

5. Commenting and SEO

In order to get your brand more recognized and considerable, you need to share, comment on other people's content, make them feel special - if you have something of value, they will most likely follow up. This in turn will have them link to you - and potentially give you some Search Engine Optimization benefits!

6. Going Viral

Let everyone talk, relate, share, and interact with your content and branding - this will create a buzz and interest ultimately leading to many people linking to you and coming to you on their own.

This 6 step process is a lengthly and time consuming process - however if done correctly it is not complicated and may yield some very interesting results.

One of our test candidates Shirjoy - started her MySpace account about a month ago and has only done 2 or 3 of the above steps, view the image below to see her results. Now imagine if she was doing all 6 of the steps!

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If you are in the position or if you are a company it may be advisable to outsource to an agency or freelancer to take care of your social media project. The simple reason being, what good would your branding be if your organization cannot provide the products or services people believe is worth quite a bit, based on what they have been led to believe? And who else would be better at developing and maintaining your products or services other than yourself?

The reason why to outsource - would be because it would be quite expensive to build a whole new department or train the existing marketing department - this may cause a waste of time and/or personnel (unless your company can afford it!) On the other hand if you outsource, you may be able to invest more money on creating campaigns that will offer experiences to your audience.

Today online shoppers are looking for interesting and interactive "relationships" - this whole thing with social media - got us to realize how consumer would like to be treated. Give them a reason why to enjoy themselves on your website or platform and see if they won't come back. (check out Social Gaming if you are skeptical!)

In Conclusion:

The 6 step process was developed to simplify social media usage to any type of persons' usage, whether you'd be an individual job searching, promoting a talent that you may have, or be it a company that is promoting its products/services. These steps are good and important to anyone. They will allow you to have a competitive advantage and will allow you to compete with larger more successful businesses on a level playing field. It will teach you how to use social media in an effective way, and not allow social media to backfire on you in any negative way.

Finally it will allow you to budget correctly and plan effectively how to maintain your audience, convert them into clients and provide them with a unique and interactive experience that will only have them craving for more!

Yermi Kurkus is the Co-founder of KolBaKol and runs their Social media squad department which advises businesses, job seekers and entrepeneurs on how to use social media to maximize its usage to their individualized benefit. KolBaKol builds privatized social platforms for businesses that seek to catch on to this competitive advantage and seeks to interact with their audiences. Social Media Squad offers services for this platform which creates a unique and innovative experience for the company's audience. For more information feel free to contact via email or Twitter.

Cultivating Relationships with FarmVille

Many view Facebook as a social platform to play games and stay in touch with friends. Where as others view these games a waste of time and perceive that those people playing these games have nothing better to do with their time.

It would be quite difficult to explain to the latter group, why and how FarmVille has 80 Million users! FarmVille is the popular farming game developed by Zynga which is now worth just over $4 Billion.

The question really is - why are so many people attracted to that game? and why are more people joining?

There are many reasons why FarmVille in particular and Zynga in general are so successful. Zynga is an extremely clever group of people that have amazing marketing skills and a very strong understanding of Social Gaming. Some concepts they put into their game are; Challenging tasks, points, levels, badges/ribbons, rewards and best of all interactivity. Interactivity is probably their key to success - "Share with Friends" or "Help your Neighbor" techniques were used excessively with FarmVille.

They marketed themselves by having the players share and post updates to their walls and by gifting their friends. This didn't only benefit Zynga, but it also benefited the people sharing and gifting.

You see, Social Media is all about sharing, building and "cultivating" relationships - whether new or existing. People that would like to have discussions seek a common interest with the second party, once that connection is made, a conversation is born! Zynga provided just that! A reason for people to talk, something to have in common, and ultimately a reason to be on FaceBook!

Personally, as a non-traditional marketer, who uses social media in order to market products/services, or to compile research data. I found it challenging to enter into conversation or to get the satisfied results I was after. This is a general challenge that most people face in life, it is not easy to stay in touch with everyone and it is quite difficult to start a conversation when you have a targeted agenda.

That is where Social Media comes in! On these platforms we are more likely to find a common interest that will ultimately lead us to conversation. FarmVille may be one of these examples amongst many other similar applications and status updates.

Here's an example of a conversation:

1. On my wall I see: "Jonny - needs 1 more nail to complete his barn"

2. I then see him online and I choose to chat with him.

3. Chat goes something like this...

Me > Jonny - "Hey, how's your farm doing? I need a nail and a brick to finish my barn"

Jonny > Me - "Hey, great, I'm almost done my barn, only need one more nail... can you gift it to me?"

Me > Jonny - "Sure, one sec..."

Me > Jonny - "Done..."

Jonny > Me - "Thanks"

Me > Jonny - "So other than FarmVille, how are you doing?"

Jonny > Me - "All is normal, how about you?"

Me > Jonny - "Great, I'm working on this marketing project - which you actually might be able to help me out with"

Jonny > Me - "Sure, how can I help?"

What happened in this example was, the common interest was used to get to a predetermined agenda by using social means. The marketer was able to give something to his friend and get something in return. When people are playing a game, their "guards" are lowered, they are now in a more social attitude. Right now their concern is to get as many friends to join their co-op or send them materials for the barn they are building. Once a friend does this "favor" for them - the latter has just scored some "brownie points" and now has the opportunity to ask a favor in return, whilst the first friend does not see it as a threat or a bother.

This is one of the many benefits of social media and what many businesses and individuals are catching on to now. No wonder why Social Media is growing at such a successful rate. Games are being used as powerful marketing tools and Ice-Breakers. Businesses can now offer fun experiences and individuals have a common interest to start a conversation.

So, will you ever play FarmVille the same way again?

Please share your experiences and your take on Social Gaming or the like.

Join KolBaKol and Social Media Squad to find out more about The benefits of Social Media and what opportunities can be found - find out how you can catch on and milk this cash cow today!

Yermi Kurkus is the Co-founder of KolBaKol and runs their Social media squad department which advises businesses, job seekers and entrepeneurs on how to use social media to maximize its usage to their individualized benefit. KolBaKol builds privatized social platforms for businesses that seek to catch on to this competitive advantage and seeks to interact with their audiences. Social Media Squad offers services for this platform which creates a unique and innovative experience for the company's audience. For more information Yermi can be contacted via email or Twitter.

The 4 Social Media Questions

How is the Internet different in 2010 than all the other years?

1. How many times do you hear about the benefits of social media?
2. How many of your friends have Facebook or have profiles on similar platforms?
3. How many of your friends are urging you to join one or more of these networks?
4. Why should you join?

These are the questions we will attempt to answer in this article.

1. Benefits of social media:
Social media (or also known by its' technical term Web 2.0) is a special way to interact among individuals, where a platform gives you the opportunity to share, interact and personalize your "Internet" - hence the "social" aspect comes in.
98% of Americans spend a reasonable amount of time socializing, whether it be at work, school, home, store or street. It is an innate need that every one of us humans has to have.

80% of jobs, referrals and/or friendships are formed through networking. This is simply because it builds a trust and networking is a social activity that everyone seems to enjoy. Therefore it is a hassle free environtment, where you can discuss different topics on a social level.



2. Facebook population:
Facebook is currently the largest social networking platform out there. It currently holds aproximatly 52% of the market share - which means that there is aproximatly 1.8 billion Internet users and 2/3 of them are using social media = 1.2 billion users x .52 (facebook market share) = 620 million users! That is a population of two countries!!! Aproximatly 116 million of those come from US alone!

3. Facebook usage:
As of Feb 2010 according to Nielsen Company's research the global average time spent per person on social networks is around 5.5 hours per month. Facebook accounting for the majority of that time!
In the US alone it is estimated at 6.02 hours.
Facebook is the number one network In the world accounting for aproximatly 6 hours per person with an average of users logging in more than 19 times per month!



4. Why should you join?
My favorite line from MCHammer when he was interviewed in one of the Hubspot TV podcast was talking about how should Twitter monitize their platform (episode #28 - 27:25) - he said "give me a hundred million people doing anything and I will tell you how some make money somehow... 'anyone wants water? Water is Ten cents..."
This is a nail hit directly on the head, and could not be more to the point! When you have such a large audience concetrated in one area for a long period of time and these same audiences are frequently returning - don't you think there may be some kind of opportunity just waiting to be grabbed?

Join KolBaKol and Social Media Squad to find out more about The benefits of Social Media and what opportunities can be found - find out how you can catch on and milk this cash cow today!

Yermi Kurkus is the Co-founder of KolBaKol and runs their Social media squad department which advises businesses, job seekers and entrepeneurs on how to use social media to maximize its usage to their individualized benefit. KolBaKol builds privatized social platforms for businesses that seek to catch on to this competitive advantage and seeks to interact with their audiences. Social Media Squad offers services for this platform which creates a unique and innovative experience for the company's audience. For more information Yermi can be contacted via email or Twitter.