Interested in getting hands on experience that will change the way you do social media forever?

Workshop before SMAZ 7-9am

Whether you are a novice or a seasoned social media participant, it is vital to understand the role social media plays in the current business landscape. We will re-visit the purpose of social media and how it has evolved as a business strategy. However, implementing a social media strategy with a traditional marketing mindset can be disastrous. We will cover the different approached needed for Social Media marketing vs. traditional marketing. Register Today!

Let’s face it, social media is a ton of work, especially to do it right. Our workshop with reveal some insider tips that rarely get shared on how to drive new business with social media and the tools we use. Most importantly, it will become easier to manage and a lot more fun…because you will get better results, a lot faster.

Topics Covered

- Finding your secret sauce in social media and content marketing

- Becoming the trusted expert in your industry

- How to choose the right social media outlets for your content marketing strategy

- Why social media doesn’t work without a content strategy

- Case Studies: Successes and failures of companies who have done great and lousy jobs

Key Takeaways:

• How to implement reporting tools to track your ROI goals and objectives
• What social media sites work best for SEO
• Tools to reduce the time investment required by social media
• Making social media fun!

About Fionn Downhill of Elixir Interactive

Fionn Downhill is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Elixir Interactive. Established in February 2003, We are a digital marketing agency that focuses on search and social media. We specialize in helping companies understand how their customers think and interact online and then use that information to develop highly targeted marketing programs. By leveraging our experience, technology and creativity, we are able to deliver results that generate sales, brand awareness and outstanding ROI.

About Matt O’Brien and Mint Social

With 20 years of experience in the digital media world, Matt O’Brien has worked for and with Fortune 500 businesses and has built companies from start up stage to exit strategy. In addition to founding Mint Social, Matt has developed educational curriculum for a major university on social media for businesses, is a founding board member of AZIMA (Arizona Interactive Marketing Association), founder of World Webinar Network and is active with many non-profit agencies in town.

Mint Social is a social media marketing and online branding company that accelerates online marketing by building content engines that increase visibility and reputation in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and in social networks. Mint Social helps businesses understand (through implementation) why social media and online branding is critical to online marketing success and provides the tools for delivering measurable results along the way.

After smashing success for the previous 2 events with over 400 in attendance last event, Social Media AZ announces the SMAZ3!

As a previous SMAZ attendee you are entitled to special ticket pricing for the upcoming Social Media AZ (SMAZ3MINT) event on September 9th.

As a person that attended the SMAZ event previously we are offering you an opportunity to get 25% off your tickets or 50% off if you buy two tickets for the best Social Media for Business Conference in Arizona, September 9th in downtown Tempe.

This offer is only good until August 27th, order your tickets now before the price goes up. This event has sold out every time, so get your tickets today.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW

• Greg Chapman – President, Sitewire
• Matt O’Brien – President, Mint Social
• Michael Roberts – President, SpyFu
• Sheila Kloefkorn – President, KEO Marketing
• Katie Van Domelen – Social Media Manager, Off Madison Ave.
• Bart Steiner – CEO and Founder, BulbStorm
• Arnie Kuenn – President, Vertical Measures
• Laurie G Buczek – Enterprise 2.0 Program Manager, Intel Corporation
• Tiffany Winman – Social Media Strategist, IBM
• Fred von Graf – Managing Partner, Web3Mavens
• Mike Corak – Vice President of Strategy, Tallwave
• Bret Giles – President, AgencySide
• Jeff Moriarty – Director Social Media, Sitewire
• Evo Terra – Digital Marketing Strategist, Sitewire
• Fionn Downhill – President, Elixir Interactive
• Dean Wright – Vice President Marketing, Tripware.com

We will be hosting the Social Media AZ Awards – Also know as the SMAZZIES during the SMAZ event on September 9th.

Attend to see who wins the awards in the seven categories.

• Must Follow – The blog, twitter, or online presence you can’t get enough of
• Business That Gets It – Non-industry company (not a social media/marketing entity) who demonstrates creative and proficient use of social media
• Most Social Use Of Social Media – Best/most innovative use of technology to connect to people in person
• Trailblazer – Out there doing cutting edge things, changing the way people work or think in the social media space
• Up and Coming – Most notable freelance individual or agency that is notably improving its offering
• Most Entertaining – Most all around amusing, insightful, or crazy
• Homegrown Can Of Awesome – Most interesting / promising start up business, technology or tool from right here in AZ

Read more

We have partnered with the Online Marketing Institute to offer a deep dive workshop at SMAZ.

The Online Marketing Institute and Wharton Interactive Media Initiative’s new Intermediate Social Media Workshop Series is coming to Phoenix on September 9th offering world-class academic rigor and case study research from the leading universities and research firms combined with practical training from OMI instructors (Fionn Downhill of Elixir Interactive and Matt O’Brien of Mint Social). This Intensive 2 hour (7am – 9am) Social Media Workshop costs $79 and is available to friends of SMAZ for 30% off when you use the promo code OMISMAZ30. Register Here

Get more information and the full agenda for the workshop here.

Although we may not want to admit it, there is a difference between your perception of yourself and the public perception of you. Companies are no different. In today’s times branding is everything. To make sure that both your perception and the general perception they want to portray are along the same line, many companies invest tens of thousands of dollars every year. Among the many other things that internet has managed to do, redefining marketing strategies is a huge one. Today, almost every company has its presence on the web, because it is essential. It is said that almost 94% of products are researched online before they are purchased.  As a result, online branding and marketing is increasingly more important.

Online branding no longer means that people have to visit your site, to view or buy your products. People get to know and buy your products, even without visiting your websites. With Social Media Marketing, your business can be promoted throughout various avenues that were not available 10 or even 5 years ago. Social media marketing is a low cost/high return promotional method and can draw visitors and fans in large numbers. Websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are no longer websites for kids; they have now become potent sources of online branding and marketing.

However you need to make sure of a few things before using social media marketing as a part of your online branding strategy.

As with any marketing tactic, maintenance and professionalism is key. Control the urge to join every social media site. Having your presence everywhere may not harm you or your company, but if the sites are unmaintained or unprofessional, it may cause visitors to think twice.

Determine which social media outlets are best for you or your product. Remember to choose the right user name, choose the right initial connections and so on. After the first 30 days, make any necessary tweaks to your profiles, have a contest or incentive, post regularly to keep in front of the eyes of your target.

Remember, when it comes to online branding and social media marketing, Content is king. If you are unable to manage these, you can always take help from professionals like Shannon O’Brien Bradley. Shannon has been in the marketing industry for over 15 years now and has considerable experience in the field of social media marketing. Apart from Social media marketing, Shannon Bradley also specializes in, project management and creative services.

We are changing up the traditional blog post and making it more INTERACTIVE! Is the ‘Next Generation’ blog post more like a blog story…read/click, read…click…read…engage (with images guiding your way)?

Give our blog story a test drive - ”At what stage are you at with your social media marketing (for you or for your business)?”

Click the image below that best represents where you are with your social media marketing. Then read the rest of the story and engage with us…

Beginner Social Media Marketing

Intermediate Social Marketing

Advanced Social Media Marketing

Get
Minty Results

Expert WebSite Evaluations

on Tuesday, July 13th at 6:00 pm

In July, the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association will explore a new and exciting format, as top internet marketing professionals from throughout the Phoenix market will provide expert analysis, evaluation and critique of websites for small local businesses.

Some of the Valley’s most respected and recognized internet marketers will be providing insightful analysis and helpful tips and suggestions to Arizona business websites selected from submissions made via the AZIMA website.

The July AZIMA event, held on Tuesday, July 13th will feature panelists from the Valley’s celebrated internet marketing community performing an open review and analysis as well as providing companies with ideas and tactics to implement to increase traffic, generate sales leads, and ultimately, enhance the marketability of the reviewed websites.

The panelists include:

Panel #1:

Sheila – President, KEO Marketing (Search Engine Optimization Expert)

Chris Sietsema– President, Teach to Fish (User Experience Expert)

Jack – Creator & Owner, Social Latte (Social Media Marketing Expert)

Panel #2:

David Wallace – CEO, Search Rank (Search Engine Optimization Expert)

Aaron Strom–Sr. Director User Experience & Social Community,  Godaddy.com (User Experience Expert)

Matt O’Brien – President, Mint Social (Social Media Marketing Expert)

Event Location: Scottsdale Hilton (6333 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85250) A light dinner, and one drink is included.

Free WebSite Evaluations

Submissions will be collected right here (complete the form below) from June 16- July 2nd, at which time four websites will be selected.  To be eligible for selection, businesses must be located in the metropolitan Phoenix market.

Advanced social media marketing (thinking) – Social media profiles, domain names, online content, keyword rankings…digital assets? Your business has a website and your businesses is doing some sort of social media marketing (whether you realize it or not). In other words, you are the promoter and so is anyone else online (like it or not).

This massive shift of putting the publishing power into the hands of ANYBODY has made social media an online business survival tactic (or a powerful marketing tool). Even after 20 years in the digital marketing business, I still get that feeling every now and then (that sinking feeling), that we are not doing enough to stay on top of the knowledge storm coming at us every day. But it is the application of this knowledge that puts a business ahead of the curve. Therefore, a business not in control of their social media (any business not actively publishing content, where 3 out of 4 people are online), has inadvertently relinquished CONTROL  OF THEIR BRAND to anybody that cares to comment on your brand.

Does this concern you?

Is having control (or influence) over your online brand and your personal reputation important? (This should be a rhetorical question)

This is not meant to be a scare tactic, just a wake-up call for businesses sitting on the sidelines. Do you consider your BRAND to be an asset? If you were to sell your business today, would your brand (represented offline and online) add goodwill to increase the sell price?

Offline Brand vs. Online Brand (digital assets)

I had the pleasure of meeting with Jeff Pruitt of Tallwave for lunch this week at one of my favorite spots, Chelsea’s Kitchen. One of the more engaging discussions we had was concerning digital assets. Jeff shares the same viewpoint that we have as Mint Social, profiles in social media are digital assets (just like domain names) that are long term investments into the value of your brand and business. This forward thinking approach of social media profiles as digital assets of a business is not top of mind with businesses today that want immediate ROI for their marketing efforts. Is this short sighted thinking? To some degree yes. As the economy improves, businesses will shift their decision-making from being almost 100% ROI centric to include a more longer term thinking when it comes to social media. Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, Twitter, Google, etc. are valuable digital assets that will add goodwill and an x-factor when it comes to your exit strategy options.

Give our blog story a test drive - ”At what stage are you at with your social media marketing (for you or for your business)?”

Click the image below that best represents where you are with your social media marketing. Then read the rest of the story and engage with us…

Beginner Social Media Marketing

Intermediate Social Marketing

Advanced Social Media Marketing

Get Minty Results

Webinar Summary: Many people think that using tools like Twitter and Facebook is an effective social media marketing strategy. While these sites are helpful, they are merely tactics which do not address the over-arching goals of a social media marketing campaign in the first place. Join us on Wednesday the 26th of May at 11:00am PST when we discuss how to generate results for your social media marketing campaign. Our special guest will be Aaron Bare, CEO of Buzzmouth. Recently I caught up with Aaron for a a few minutes to talk about what we will be discussing on the webinar:

About Aaron Bare
Creative entrepreneur, management consultant and experienced business development executive.

Experience with launching products, completing technology projects, raising capital, outsourcing/offshoring and selling businesses. In 2008, selected as “35 under 35” Entrepreneurs in Arizona. Also won Video Award, Addy, Webby, Telly and Web Awards for past technology projects.

He is a former management consultant with Accenture and money manager with the Vanguard Group. Aaron’s education includes a BS (honors) in Business from Indiana Tech, MA in Economic Development from Indiana University and MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird. He has traveled to over 60 countries.

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

The other day I was over at the great web marketing blog dosh dosh and read an interesting post on marketing your website without search engines. This got me thinking back to my early days on the web when I was in college (Does anyone remember those news updates?).  Basically, I would have to spend about 2 hours hunting and pecking through directories like gopher (named for the University of Minnesota mascot where the protocol was invented) for something that would now take about 10 seconds on google, bing or yahoo today.

I am a fan of kung fu movies–in Enter the Dragon,  Bruce Lee says when talking to one of his pupils: “It’s like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory”.





In the context of marketing ourselves online, this quote reminds me of all the things we do to design our websites so that we will be discovered by these search engines. Today, search engines are the finger pointing a way to our websites. If we are not careful, we can almost forget about the fact that the goal of building a website for our businesses  is to get HUMAN BEINGS to read it, understand it,  and take action on our product and service offerings. As Bruce Lee says in the scene above: “We need emotional content”. In other words–we cannot just write for Mr. Googlebot. Now, I understand AND appreciate the revolution that search has brought to our lives. I mean, being able to find the exact wording–heck the actual scene of a Bruce Lee quote from an obscure 1970′s movie in 15 seconds is REMARKABLE.  But, I also think that becoming solely reliant on a search engine to send us traffic is not only not optimal–it is dangerous–what if Google all of a sudden decides that it doesn’t like you anymore??

So, what if search engines didn’t exist? What would people do to find their information? How would they learn about your product or service?  Maki over at dosh dosh put it this way:

Without search engines, people will do what they’ve been doing for thousands of years. They rely on each other. They rely on the community, on the collection of publications known within their geographic location or industry. They rely on word of mouth. And they also rely on getting information from common resources like a public square, library, forum or marketplace.

If you think about it, social media sites like twitter, facebook and LinkedIn are the digital equivalent of a public square. This is why building your social media footprint and helping people share your content online is so important  to really pack the punch that you are looking for from marketing your business online.

Do you remember Stretch Armstrong?  Although I did not have the toy, I certainly found pleasure in trying to destroy it or stretching to its maximum capacity as a kid (and you could).

This reminds me of the current McDonald’s campaign “eat like an Olympian.” Here it is in a nutshell: create a sauce that is only available in the Olympic Village and then create a promotion offering this sauce (for chicken nuggets) at all McDonald’s locations…so you can eat like an Olympian. Does this make you crave McDonald’s?

Would you consider this a stretch of the marketing message?

Absolutely!

Does it fit in with social media marketing?

Definitely!

Is this a bad campaign?

Actually, it’s a good campaign and here’s why.

The “eat like an Olympian” campaign is creating some feedback both positive and negative in the social media space and in the media…so it is getting people talking.  The viral buzz is going on both good and bad so the primary goal of invoking a response has been achieved. I am sure the McDonald’s team that is managing the Twitter stream may disagree but it is getting mind space and it is getting the McDonald’s brand out there. Even through the messaging is a total stretch and was created for the sake of saying “eat like an Olympian”, it is creating third party content by getting people talking online (and offline). Isn’t this the primary goal of social media?

This is a great example of how messaging can be a hit of miss (and here they took a risk). If no one was talking, it would be a miss (which is not the case here). Most companies don’t think this way and tend to create marketing and branding messages that are too insider. Then when it comes to having this translate into social media marketing, it typically becomes a stretch for them to get the messaging right. McDonald’s really stretched what we all consider a valid marketing message (even McDonald’s insiders would agree) but does it matter if the results are there? I guess it is too early to tell if this campaign helped to increase sales at McDonald’s but as for an example of how to stretch your marketing message to invoke a response and to get people talking, this one is good.

I have to admit that I did have McDonald’s last night but I was not motivated to try the special sauce of the McNuggets. I guess I was the one who missed out on eating like an Olympian.

Beginner Social Media – Every online business must have the basics in place when it comes to social media marketing. If you are still not sure ‘if’ social media makes sense for your business, then you might as well delete your website from the Internet. This is not a pitch for using Mint Social. If fact, most companies we work with have some semblance of social media in place. OK, so here is you must do checklist (it is short because this is just the tip of the iceberg).

1. Blog – We like self-hosted WordPress. Not sure you need a blog, skip down to 2-5 below.
2. LinkedIn (business account and personal account) – Most people have a linkedIn account but we are always surprised when businesses have not taken the time to create a business profile and RSS in their posts from their blog. LinkedIn profiles are usually in the top 10 in Google when doing a name search (if setup correctly). As for your personal profile, you can RSS in your blog posts, SlideShare documents, Twitter account and much more. LinkedIn profiles will become the first or second place people look for making hiring decisions and buying decisions.
3. Facebook (fan page and maybe ads) – Fan pages are valuable because Google sees them and loves them. You can create a fan base and you can RSS in content from your blog, Twitter and other places. This blog feeds our Facebook fan page and I try to keep my personal profile more personal than business but it ends up being a blend of both.
4. Google Account – If you do not have a Google account, you are missing out Big Time. Get a Gmail account and start using it for all your social media emails.  It is a great way to filter your email but it also gives you access to must have Google tools. Want to show up in the maps area in a Google search? Get you business on Google Maps. Google profiles are another way to promote you and your business and auto populate your profile via RSS. It goes without saying that Analytics, Alerts and Webmaster Tools are essential to have  GOOG-411, Talk and Voice are fun to have. Insider Tip: Google Maps is where your customers can give your business reviews. The more reviews you have, the more likely you will show up in the top spot in Google.
5. Merchantcircle.com – This is another business profile account that is great for geographically targeted keyword marketing. It is also has a great blog and is another place for your customers to write reviews.
6. Tools for the overworked business – Social media gets a bad rap because it is time consuming and does not have an immediate ROI (learn more about ROI and Social Media). If you agree with this or are too busy to Twitter and Blog, here are the last things you should do.
   1. Secure your personal name and business name in Twitter (you can thank us later) and use HootSuite to feed your blog to Twitter or find data feeds using HootSuite that can auto-populate your account. Personal and business reputation management is important and Twitter is a great tool for this.
   2. Pandora.com – Being too busy does not mean you can not have some fun while working. Maybe you do not have a killer play list on your iPod or need a change with the tunes you listen to. Setup a Pandora account, pick your favorite band and listen to streaming music 24/7 of this band and the music that influenced then while your overworked body is hacking away at the computer.

   Give our blog story a test drive - ”At what stage are you at with your social media marketing (for you or for your business)?”

   Click the image below that best represents where you are with your social media marketing. Then read the rest of the story and engage with us…

   

   Beginner Social Media Marketing

   

   Intermediate Social Marketing

   

   Advanced Social Media Marketing

   

   Get Minty Results