It happens to everyone about this time of year. All those shiny new New Year’s resolutions don’t look so pretty any more. Those 5:30 am spinning classes just arent’ as much fun as they were back in January and the diet…well, let’s just say that I’m still eating ice cream at night.

The key to keeping any resolution is to get over the February hump. By March, what once felt new and different in January is becoming a lifestyle change and the further and further you go, the harder it is to get back to your old routine.

With that in mind, what better way to get over the February hump then to do a quick check to both monitor progress and make needed adjustments. If your resolution involved blogging, now that you’re a month in, it’s a good time to step back and give the blog the old fitness checkup.

Here’s 10 things to do to check to be sure your blog is on the right track:

1. Forget the traffic numbers
In the beginning, we all get addicted to the traffic. Most new bloggers check in over and over throughout the day. At this point, don’t worry about it. Instead, be sure that you’re doing everything now to build the foundation that will help your blog continue to grow.

2. What has worked so far?
Here’s the one place where traffic numbers can help. Go back and see which post is getting the most action. What is it about that post that is bringing in the traffic. Determine what people like about the post and use that information to guide you in future posts.

3. Is the Blog User Friendly?
How easy is it to navigate your blog. Is it open to comments? What gets in the way of reading and commenting on the blog. You want to make your blog as open and as easy to use as possible. Anything that turns a reader away may turn them away for good.

4. Is your RSS feed working and is it easy to find
With the recent change from Feedburner to Google, it’s probably a good idea to check in to see that everything is working and links are active. Also be sure that your RSS feed is clearly marked with an RSS icon. You want to make it easy for repeat readers to keep in touch.

5. Do you share well with others?
Is it easy for users bookmark your posts or share them on Digg, Facebook or other social networking sites? If you’re using Wordpress, be sure that your Socialble or Share This plugin is working and offers the most commonly used services. Those little icons on the bottom of the post are one of the most powerful tools you can include on your blog

6. Are your URLs search  engine friendly?
Your blog headline is one of the first things a search engine will read. If you’re using Wordpress, the default URL setting uses numbers which is about worthless when it comes to SEO.

Also be sure to use search-engine friendly headlines. With Wordpress, you can easily change the URL and fill it with key terms. Keep it simple and to the point but be sure the terms are there. For example, notice the headline on this post and the address in the web browser.

7. Is your blog roll healthy and up to date?
When I’m not blogging about social media, I also blog about the Ohio State Buckeyes. My Ohio State blog is very well indexed on Google and other search engines. One reason may be the number of incoming links and the strength of the blogroll. By working with other Big Ten bloggers, I’ve been able to build a very strong blog roll and have received a number of very strong links.

I don’t know if this is what has pushed The Buckeye Blog to the top of the Google results but I bet it has something to do with it.

This is the number one mistake I am making on this blog and is the first thing on my list (when I get time). When you add a blog to your blogroll, the blogger will see it and will often return the favor. It also never hurts to send a nice letter asking for a link exchange – especially in the early days of a blog.

8. Are you using appropriate categories?
Search engines like categories. Be sure to use key word appropriate categories and categorize your posts. It also makes it easier for readers to find related information on your blog.

9. What’s on your “About Me” page?
Your About Me page doesn’t need to say much. However, people read a post and they often want to know more about the voice behind it. Sometimes, they just want to verify that the information comes from a knowledgeable source.

Be sure to also include a way for readers to contact you. If you’re worried about spam, use a contact form (there are a number of good plugins available).

10. Is your blog integrated with your other social networking activities?
If your using other social networking sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter, let the world know. Include easy to find links where readers can connect. Blog readers like to engage and talk to others. Make it easy for them.

Seeing how SocialMarketing20.com is a fairly new blog, I’m sure that you can spot a few areas I need to target. If you’re like me, it looks like I’ve got the start of a pretty good “to do” list. I’ve you’ve got any other tips or ideas, please share them in the comments below.

Jim Lodico is a freelance copywriter and social media consultant. Contact Jim to find out how he can give your business a boost at jalodico@bizwritings.com

A year or so ago I sat in on a presentation with the Baltimore Sun’s internet division. One of the most interesting things to come out of the presentation was that they time their editorial content to follow the workday distraction.

In other words, they see heavy traffic in the morning, things pick up again shortly after noon and taper off only to be followed once more around 3:00 or so in the afternoon. Knowing this pattern, they try to update stories to fit the ebb and flow of the typical work day.

And while I don’t remember the exact schedule of the traffic flow, I thought it was pretty amazing that you can pretty much determine office productivity by the Baltimore Sun’s online traffic patterns.

With that in mind, its Friday so why not do a little surfing around the world of social media:

Papa Johns reaches 200,000 through Facebook campaign
Interview with Bob Ford, Director of online marketing for Papa Johns. If you still don’t understand the power of Facebook, consider “fans” who are happy to receive your advertisements.

How to Use Facebook to Market Your Blog- good tips for integrating a blog w/Facebook. Be sure to check the comments as there are a few more buried in there also.

How to Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes – Still don’t know how to monitor social media channels? Chris Brogan has a primer.

300+ Cases of Social Media Marketing

How I use Social Media to Promote My Business – Social Media and Time Management an issue? Mark Haward shows you how he fits it into a busy day.

The Day 250,000 People Showed Up at My Blog; A Case Study – Oh to have such problems. Darren at Problogger analyzes the impact of digg and other social bookmarking sites.

U.S. Air Force Guidelines on Responding to Blogs – Your company still trying to figure out how to handle commenting on blogs and forums? Leave it to the military to develop a hierarchical response (and I think it works)

You’re Doing It Wrong – Another gem from Chris Brogan. Everyone get’s so concerned about the rules of social media, how about doing what works for you?

Twitter’s Massive 2008: 752 Percent Growth – Yep, Twitters hot right now.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business – More Chris Brogan. He must have had a good week.

How Not to be a Key Influencer – One lapse of judgement on Twitter and suddenly your big news. The question remains, would it be news if not for the Twitter discussion that followed.

How to Track Twitter Clicks and Conversion Data – a simple solution for measuring Twitter

40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them – more good examples of Twitter in action

How to Use TweetDeck – Still don’t understand how to use Twitter. Step 1 – use TwitDeck or another 3rd part application. Step 2 – Here’s the directions for using TweetDeck.

1981 Primitive Interview Report on Kron – remember telephone modems and TRS 80 computers? Here’s a great interview dating back to 1981, way before the internets, talking about how some newspapers are experimenting with online versions of their printed edition. Favorite line, “It’s not about the money” as sadly, print media types foresee their own demise.

How to Grow Your Followers to Over 10,000 In a Week – (Twitter) If that’s what you really want to do. I saw someone today bragging about how she had hit 6,000 followers. Funny, but I don’t think I’ve noticed anything else she’s Twitted about other then her 6,000 followers.

And here’s one more that just came in:

And Why Isn’t this Huge Yet? – Do you have a burning desire to set a world record? The Universal World Record Data Base is waiting for you. (Check the most David Lee Roth kicks)

With that I’ll leave you for today. If you need more, be sure to check my Delicious bookmarks as I add to them regularly.

And one more thing, since joining Twitter, I don’t think I’ve looked at a feedreader once. All of these come through Twitter recommendations. If they look familiar, we must be following the same people.

Have  a good Friday.

Where were you?

Ask yourself for a moment how you first heard about the plane which went down in the Hudson River. If you’re like me, you first heard about the story on Twitter. Within minutes of the crash, Twitter suddenly came to life not only with news of the crash but with reports from eye witnesses and even the amazing photo above taken by a passenger on one of the first ferries to arrive on the scene.

While citizen journalism has been growing for a while, Twitter’s ability to rapidly spread information by “retweeting” information took citizen journalism to a new level. Not only that, the speed of the news cycle was absolutely amazing. Within 15 minutes of the story breaking, word was spreading around Twitter that miraculously, everyone was off the plane and survived.

It was also interesting to watch the traditional news outlets on Twitter and how they handled the event. At the height of the story, I received a “tweet” from the Washington Post asking followers if they wanted them to report the story on Twitter admitting that they would be doing little more than reporting news that was being broadcast on the AP wire.

Think about that for a moment. As a big story is breaking, one of the country’s major news outlets stops and asks it’s readers how they want them to report the story. This has to be a first and to be honest, I don’t know what to think about it. I started to send a response saying, “DON”T ASK! REPORT!”…but I let it go.

It is also interesting to note that I don’t recall seeing anything from the New York Times (who I also follow) until after I had heard that everyone was safe. One thing however, both news services were the first I saw to post contact information for both eyewitnesses and passenger lists. As opposed to just reporting the news, both were also serving as resources in a time of emergency.

How does this apply to business?

Now, let’s take the lessons learned from this to a business level. As demonstrated, Twitter has the ability to spread information very, very fast. There are enough users and if it is interesting enough, the information will get passed around. This can be both a good and bad thing. In a crises situation, Twitter can be a very effective way to curtail the spread of false information and stay informed about what is being said.

A company actively listening on Twitter for comments about their company or product can instantly join the discussion. If the company’s Twitter account is active and has a strong following, they can instantly tell followers about what is going on from their end or reach out and offer help to users who may be spreading negative information. (Tweetdeck is an excellent tool for actively monitoring key words in Twitter)

From a basic customer support perspective, Twitter is becoming a way for companies to communicate directly with customers. For a good example, check out Comcast. Comcast has a dedicated customer support representative working solely on Twitter.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the US Airways plane crash. From a breaking news perspective, it was amazing to see the “real time” aspect of this story coming from many different perspectives. From a business perspective, it reminds us that the conversation will go on with or without us. The question becomes, how will we participate.

Jim Lodico is a freelance copywriter and public relations/social media consultant. If you’d like help getting your message out to the world, contact Jim at E-mail Me!jalodico@bizwritings.com.

Like most people new to Twitter, just six months ago, I was telling people that if they’d found a way to use Twitter for business, that would be truly innovative.

Six months later and 3 million or so new Twitter users and the verdict’s out. Twitter’s got great potential for business. According to a recent article on Mashable.com, Twitter grew 752 percent in 2008 with receiving more than 4.5 million hits in December alone.

For the initiated or soon to be Twitter user, Twitter is nothing more than another communication resource. However, Twitter makes it easy to spread information quick. One person posts their “Twit,” if others find it interesting they “retwit” it to their “followers” and on it goes. It’s sort of like the old, “I told two friends…who told two friends…who told…” only on a much larger scale.

Twitter is also a great way to get around the overflowing email inbox or receptionist who insists the manger “Isn’t in today.”

As an information resource, Twitter is quickly replacing my feed reader as I’m following people who direct me to excellent links along with a number of journalists and media outlets who update news in real time.

From a business perspective, Twitter follows the same basic rules as other social media resources. Those who spam or continually broadcast their message without giving back will be quickly shun. Twitter is a two way street and you are expected to give as much as you take. A very basic concept so many in the business world fail to understand.

If you’re new or just getting started, it’s not too difficult. Create a profile and you’re on your way. However, the basic Twitter interface can bedifficult to use. Luckily, there are a number of third-party applications available to help you manage Twitter and make the most of what on the surface seems pretty basic.

I highly recommend TweetDeck and Twhirl. Both provide a much easier and more powerful user Twitter interface than the basic Twitter.com page.

In later posts, I’ll explore Twitter from a business perspective but for now, I’ve been collecting a number of Twitter links and resources which are listed below. Please feel free to explore and add any links you’ve found helpful in the comment section.

Oh, and remember to follow me at @jlcommunication

Twitter Tips

Join Twitter – It’s Easier Than You Think

HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter

How To Gain More Twitter Followers and Keep Them

11 Ways to Use Twitter to Help Your Site Go Viral

8 Ways that Twitter Can Grow Your Freelance Business

FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons

I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter

How to Stop Twitter Becoming a Waste of Time

How to Build a Community of Twitter Followers for Your Company

HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community

8 Sure-Fire Ways To Tick Off the Twitterverse

Why Journalists Should Use Twitter

Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet

Twitter to Journalists: Here’s How It’s Done

HOW TO: Quiet the Twitter Noise

People to Follow:

Ten PR People to Follow on Twitter

Media/journalists on Twitter

List of Celebrities on Twitter

Twitter Tools

TweetDeck

Twhirl

TwitterFriends

Twitterati

100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And Buttons

140+ More Twitter Tools

Overdrive Interactive recently released their “Social Media Map for Social Media Marketing.” The “map” provides more than 150 links OverDrive, “…thinks you should care about.”

For the advanced user, it is a great one stop shop of links and new sites to explore. However, for those new to social media, it graphically captures the perceived confusion which keeps so many watching from the sidelines.

No matter where you fit on the social media competence scale, the world of social media can be overwhelming. There is always something new and a seemingly never-ending list of “must read” blogs, forums and sites all demanding profiles, conversation and constant updates. At the same time, social media is here to stay and those who continue to ignore it risk being left behind by those who understand how to apply these online tools for business.

So what should you do?

Make a New Year’s Resolution to Learn One New Social Media Tool

No matter where you fit on the social media spectrum, make it a resolution to learn one new social media tool and apply it to your business. Here’s a few tips to help you get started:

• Set clear goals about what you want to accomplish using social media. Are you looking for new leads? A better way to communicate with your clients? Expand your business network? Setting clear goals before you start will help you maintain focus as you move forward.

• Use the social-media-map above and explore. Read blogs and other online guides. There is a ton of information out there filled with tips and best practices. Determine which social media tool will help you best accomplish your goals.

• Approach your new platform as a member of the community. This is not the place to spam or shout your message. Use the platform to communicate and converse. Offer something of value and you will  get a response.

• Participate, participate, participate

• Think of your new social media platform as a part of the bigger marketing picture. While you may not directly attribute sales your online presence, your online interactions tell your client something about you or your company. Online discussions can also turn cold calls into warm contacts and help your business stand out from the rest.

Fortunately, the learning curve for social media tools moves quick. For many, the hardest thing is just getting started.

My Personal Resolution

My resolution is to optimize Twitter and further use it to grow my business. I am currently experimenting with both Twhirl and TweetDeck and finding great tools using Tweetlater. Twitter is getting a great deal of buzz at the moment and I am quickly seeing why.

You can follow me at @jlcommunication and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

So What’s Your Resolution?

Need a little extra motivation? Make your resolution public. Tell us in the comments below how you plan to use social media in 2009.

Jim Lodico is a freelance copywriter and public relations/social media consultant. To learn more about how Jim can help your business, visit www.jalcommunications.com or contact him at www.jalcommunication.com/contact.

I took four days off over the Christmas holiday. I had to – otherwise I wouldn’t have had a holiday with my family. I crammed the entire shebang into about 72 hours – we’re talking shopping, wrapping, cooking, jamming everyone into my house for eating and a present-a-thon. Now the needles are dropping off the tree and I look forward the New Year and getting on with 2009.

On the Sunday after Christmas, for the first time in four days, I opened my email and did some catching up. In the process, I read comments from an online group on LinkedIn.com in which a member asked if anyone else was working over the holidays… Kind of like someone calling out a window – “Hey, anybody out there? What are you up to?”

That’s what I love about social networking. It’s like being neighbors with the world.

It was interesting to read some of the responses. There were plenty of people who were working but most of the responses sounded relaxed and grateful – both in working during what has been traditionally a “down” week, and grateful for having work to do.

That got me thinking: These people are all self-employed, as I am. Do we have to work differently? What’s an option in work for us — and what isn’t?

• Now that social marketing and media has entered the picture, how has that affected our work “day”?

• In working on your own — what qualities (as opposed to skills) are necessary?

Over the years that I’ve been an independent commercial copywriter, creative developer and consultant, people have often chimed in on whether they could work the way self-employed people work. “I couldn’t do it! I’d be in my pajamas watching TV all day.” “I can’t live without a steady paycheck.”  “It must be great to be your own boss. Nobody to tell you what to do.”

Now the social networking sites are filled with newly-created self-employed businesspeople due to layoffs and crashes of markets. Freelance workers are blossoming like freckles.

Whether you’re working from home in your pj’s or from an office with a laptop – or from your local coffee house – there are still qualities that make or break those of us who work on our own.

And —

• Do we take enough down time for ourselves? Because now the work world online moves at warp speed. Can we afford to take down time?? Can we not??

I’m the world’s worst for not taking vacation. I’ve worked through major surgery. I’ve gone to meetings in a wheel chair with a boot cast. I work sick. Ninety-nine percent of my clients had no clue of any of it.

I try to have “regular” office hours, but they often extend into late night hours on email or writing.

Now that we’ve added Web2.0 to our work day, things are even more intense – much of it good. But is some of it dangerous to our creativity and resources??

In the coming posts, I’ll be ruminating on these topics.

But not right now. Right now I have to go feed my puppy and take him outside. A puppy’s bladder waits for no technology. Then I’m having dinner with a friend to catch up while we can still enjoy my Christmas tree.

But I’ll be thinking. And thinking is working.

Marci Diehl  (www.marcidiehl.com) is an experienced, high-level commercial writer and consultant with an unusual background. She’s a content creator and storyteller who believes it’s not just writing-it’s solutions.

Successful social media campaigns create content that people can’t help but share. This content can be informative, humorous, unusual or just plain fun (think Jib Jab and Dancing Elves). When done well, the content travels across social media platforms and email, reaching thousands or even millions of people in a very short period for very little cost. If done right, the brand is clearly attached or in a format that meets set marketing objectives such as building contact lists or driving traffic to a specific site.

The problem is, no matter how compelling the content, if it can’t be found, it won’t go anywhere. Enter social bookmarking sites. At their most basic level, social bookmarking site such as Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon allow users to quickly and easily highlight web content they find interesting and share it with their friends or network.

Once recognized by a social bookmarking site, the traffic begins to feed itself as content links get passed from one user to the next. Hence the term “viral.” Once something takes hold, it can spread quickly and out of control.

As a content provider, you want to make it as easy for your audience to “bookmark” your content on whatever social bookmarking site they prefer. Be sure social bookmarking links are easy to find and use.

On www.socialmarketing20.com, every post has a clear set of social bookmarking tabs directly under the post. In just one click, users can add this very post to Facebook, Digg, or any of a number of other social media sites.

The Great StumbleUpon Experiment

I recently came across a post on ProBlogger that laid out a model for driving traffic with StumbleUpon. According to the post, it only takes 20 people to stumbling a post to drive signification traffic to the post.

Stumble It!

I’d like to test that theory here. Before you leave, I ask you to click the little Santa StumbleUpon button to the right or the StumbleUpon icon under the “Share This” below. If you don’t have a StumbleUpon profile, you will be directed to open a profile. What better time then the present to explore social bookmarking.

In return for your Stumble, I will provide a complete report in a later post on the effectiveness of the StumbleUpon links. And while yes, this may appear as manipulation, I’m sure there are many of you out there who would like to see the effect social bookmarks can have from the back end of the site.

So again, please click on the little Santa StumbleUpon button above or from the list of social bookmarks under the “Share This” below.

Also, as I am just building my own StumbleUpon profile, if you’re on StumbleUpon and bookmark content related to this site, please send me a friend request at http://jlodico.stumbleupon.com/public/.

(Just to be clear. This is a one time experiment using StumbleUpon and not an attempt to manipulate the system. Any help will be appreciated.)

Update:I just realized there was a problem in the code for the Santa Icon above so it has not been recording stumbles. It is working properly now. Sorry ’bout that.

Maybe it’s because Larry McMurtry is one of my favorite writers, or maybe it’s because as a writer, I often think in metaphors – but lately I see myself this way:

I’m the scout for a wagon train (my client). We’re making our way across the social media frontier in the land of Web 2.0… It’s new territory. The hardy pioneers and I are willing to leave the familiar civilization of yesterday (literally, things change that fast) and venture into the Unknown. Our quest is to find gold, or at least a good site to build on and prosper…maybe we’re growing profit crops – okay, in a recession the quest is to at least stay alive.

My clients are small to medium-sized businesses, and I work hand-in-hand (sometimes figuratively hand-holding) with the owners, executive directors, and VPs. Most of them, including me, have been used to looking at the media-and-marketingscape with traditional tools and information. Many of those tools -print, newspapers, advertising mediums, etc. – are collapsing out from under us. We have to move forward and use new social media productively.

As a writer/consultant, one of the ways I earn my living is by learning, reading, exploring sites, gathering information, figuring out how this can benefit my client — and translating it back to them and to their clients. It’s about more than writing. It’s about thinking, analyzing, and having creative ideas that are based in sound information.

I have to admit, I’m just trying to read signs and keep from getting lost myself.

I’m a scout, not a Wizard behind a curtain. I don’t have magic answers – I don’t claim to know the territory like the back of my hand. I have to rely on my skills, instincts and yes-intuition — honed over years of experience — to read signs. My distinction is in being willing to risk and lead. To seek out useful information and leave the b.s. by the wayside where it belongs. To share that information for the benefit of my clients and colleagues.

As I come up over a ridge on the Web – I see an entire herd of buffalo drinking from a clean river. Information! Opportunity! Connections! Leads! Revenue stream! – I high-tail it back on my horse to the wagon train to tell them the good news.

Time is a precious commodity to people trying to do their jobs, run a profitable business, survive a shake-up – solve a problem. Very few have the time to read sites, read news, learn the latest-and-greatest technology. Part of my job is making time to keep track of what’s happening “out there”… recognize what is applicable and useful to the client… and send a flare by taking the information and idea to the right person. Offering options.

If you turn the wagon train a few degrees to the northwest, I tell them, you’ll be able to eat and drink for the next year.

Wagon trains are always worried about being lost and starving out there on the business prairie.

Will they be brave enough to change course and carve a new path to find resources? The brave thinkers will. The risk-takers will. The ingenious will. The others will go more slowly, but we’re all faced with that new frontier.

There’s a whole population out there who weren’t born into the tech world, and are uncomfortable with using social media. Heck, some of us don’t even know half of what our cell phones can do. But we can’t turn away from the revolution that’s taking place. I’m just saying – you may have to be gentle as you lead. Expect resistance. Some will see the opportunities and you’ll make progress together. But no one can afford to be left behind.

Being a scout can be a lonely job. The trails are confusing at times. There are so many things to check out. The pace of the wagon trains can be frustrating. Sustenance can be scarce. But you also can stumble on the perfect grazing area… a friendly town full of supplies… an unlimited horizon. Things you never knew existed.

As Jim Lodico said to me – you can read so much on the Web that you start feeling like you don’t know anything. You can certainly feel like the Lone Ranger, taking your ideas to a group that works together every day – whose mindset is sometimes in denial, or stuck in the do-as-it’s-always-been-done mode. But then — you connect with the right professional… the right business… a supportive network… a solution… You create a result that is more successful than you could’ve hoped.  The possibility is there in social marketing.

Are you a scout or on the wagon train? Are you excited about living in the Unknown? Are you feeling scared — maybe holding on to your rifle a little bit harder? Where are we headed?

Sit by the campfire and tell me your thoughts. For those of us just making the journey, it’s more likely we’ll “get there” if we help each other find the way.

When you get right down to it, it’s all about creating a productive, successful community. We’re all human. We need support. We seek it naturally. Social media is the natural extension of our need to communicate and thrive together. Only now we’re doing it on a global scale. For even the most cautious noobies among us – that has to be exciting.

Marci Diehl (www.marcidiehl.com) is an experienced, high-level commercial writer and consultant with an unusual background. She’s a content creator and storyteller who believes it’s not just writing-it’s solutions.

You’d have to be living in a cave these last couple of years not to have been run over by the “online social media” bandwagon. It seems no one’s life or business is complete without a blog and a Facebook profile.

If you ain’t on Web 2.0 you ain’t nowhere, buddy.

Hmm. Is it true or is it yet another fad? Does this “social marketing” thing work? Or is it more snake oil?

It’s all of the above!

Let me explain. First thing is there are no overnight success solutions, just as there are no overnight success stories. Behind every sudden jump into the limelight, there’s a hell of a lot of hard work and limbering up.

The exceptions? Lottery winners, reality TV “stars” and the like? They don’t last long, and their demise is often as spectacular as it is predictable.

So please, beware those people growing fat on Facebook and on other social media… on the proceeds of selling you products and seminars showing you how to make a fortune on Facebook. There are lots of reasons to be healthily skeptical of some of their claims.

That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news:

Marketing with social media works… but it takes time and effort.

There is no doubt at all that “social marketing” works. And it’s been working for as long as we’ve been human beings, because it’s founded in our very nature.

All that’s new is the medium by which we’re engaging in it. It’s never been faster or easier to reach so many people with so little effort… the only changes are in style, not substance.

Here’s why…

Without going into too much detail, we humans have evolved to interact closely with around 150 other people. That’s about the limit to the number of people we can really have strong personal relationships with (and that’s where the concept of “in group” and “out group” comes from… and, if the evolutionary psychologists are right, why there’s so much violence in big cities: almost everyone is in the “out group”).

Now… bear with me… despite the selfish nature of DNA, certain strategies of cooperation work statistically in favour of the individual (this has all been shown by “game theory”, a branch of mathematics). And given how evolution works, it shouldn’t surprise us to find we’ve evolved these characteristics.

They’re buried deep in our brains and aren’t just part of what we do – they’re part of who we are and the basis of many of the behavioural prohibitions that span all cultures (for instance, killing a member of the “in group” is abhorred in all cultures).

What does all this have to do with social marketing?

Back in the 1970s, Robert Cialdini did some groundbreaking work in the science and psychology of persuasion. He discovered six fundamental “building blocks” to persuasion. And all of them are tightly bound up with “social marketing”.

Cialdini showed fairly conclusively these are indeed due to our neurology not social conditioning, because they span the entire gamut of human races and cultures.

They are:

1.  Reciprocity – if you do something for me, I feel obliged to do something for you in return. See this in the light of social media and interactions where we give away information and advice for free. What do we get in return? Over the long term we get sales and referrals.

2.  Authority – we tend to obey authority figures. Why else do we see so many people positioning themselves as the “expert” in their niche? It’s a good strategy, and one I’ve used myself and with my clients to great effect. It’s not a logical thought process we go through in our responses to this, even though we rationalise it that way. An expert is an authority on a subject. We tend to listen.

3.  Consistency and Commitment – we tend to feel obliged to act in the way we’ve said we’re going to act. This makes us more trustworthy to others. Our behaviour can be better predicted from our words. It means we’re less likely to bash you over the head and steal your dinner if we’ve said we’re going to behave well!

4.  Liking – we tend to be more easily influenced by people we like more than by people we don’t like. We tend to like people who are like we are. Why? Because we can better predict their responses and behaviour. In business, we tend to like to deal with people we trust and like.

5.  Social Proof -  we tend to follow the crowd. If everyone’s doing it, then it’s probably a good idea. Often the reason we want to do business with someone is… because everyone else is. The “brand” becomes popular. You’ve probably heard people say things like “we’ve sold 7 million copies of this… 7 million people can’t be wrong!“. Well, yes they can. But emotionally, this is a very powerful motivator.

6.  Scarcity – we want what we can’t have. I confess, this is less to do with social media and more to do with raw survival strategies. Scarce resources are the cause of most violence in our society, whether it be land, oil, or, in the case of drunken young men on a weekend… women! Interestingly, the human trait of fighting harder not to lose something than to gain it in the first place is also pro-survival, even though it’s often a really dumb thing to do.

Statistically, over large numbers of people and interactions, these traits are pro-survival for the individual (in a world like our ancestors’), so we ought not be surprised they are hard wired into us. Quite simply, humans who had these traits survived to have offspring who had the same traits more often than those who didn’t have them.

How does this all tie together?

Simple.

We all have these characteristics and we unconsciously exhibit them when we talk, and write and socialise. As I said before, these are not just behaviours: they are us. They are part of being human.

On the web our social group, the number of people we can interact with closely on a one-to-one and on a regular basis, has increased exponentially.

It’s no longer 150… it’s tens of thousands.

Although we cannot actually have 10,000 relationships, to our readers it’s as if we do. To them, it feels like they are in our “in group”. Personalised emails, open-hearted blog postings and web-pages, stories about our lives, photographs, copy filled with our personalities… they all go to building this sense of relationship.

So our readers come to like and trust us. They come to accept our status as “authorities”. Our following gives us the social proof. We give unstintingly of ourselves, and get the reciprocation our network is hard-wired to give us.

In social marketing we are capitalising on our very humanity. A lot of marketers talk about how important the “relationship” is without really knowing why this is so.

And now you do know (which is a hell of a lot more than a lot of these “gurus” do, so it’s one in the eye from you for them!)

Ex-bouncer and jiu-jitsu instructor, and recovered computer programmer, Jon McCulloch is a leading independent direct marketing consultant and copywriter, author, public speaker, and entrepreneur.

He’s been featured in the Irish Times, writes a monthly column for the West Cork People, and helps business owners grow their businesses by 50% to 250% within just 12 months with a combination of powerful and ultra-effective marketing and business systems.

http://www.small-business-marketing-tips.com

By now you probably know that one of the quickest ways to bring traffic to your website or blog is to leave good comments in the right places. An interesting comment will often lead readers to click on the commentators name (you do leave your web site address don’t you) and in turn, find out more about you.

What makes this interesting is that you never know for sure which comment is going to be the one that drives traffic.

On something of a whim yesterday, I submitted a haiku to Copyblogger’s Twitter Haiku contest. For those of you who don’t know, Copyblogger has a very active readership and has really generated some buzz with this contest. In a great example of blog promotion, Copyblogger is giving away a Mac Airbook to the best Haiku submitted through Twitter. As of this morning, they have received more than 650 submissions.

I submitted my Haiku late last night and mine was buried way down at comment number 641. While I spent a little time reading the Haiku’s, I didn’t think anyone would make it that far down the page.

However, I woke up this morning, signed into my site (www.jalcommunication.com) only to find that the traffic had seen a huge spike. I had no idea why because I hadn’t done anything spectacular in the past day to cause the spike. As I looked deeper, I found the incoming link from copyblogger and sure enough, the traffic was being driven entirely by people clicking on the link in my comment.

Who knows what was leading readers to click on my link. Maybe the Haiku was that compelling but I doubt it. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m in the running for the Mac but again, I doubt it. It is more likely due to the fact that the Copyblogger contest has generated a ton of attention and my link is accessable on a very active web page. Get enough people to look and somebody is bound to click the link.

The important thing to take from this is that if you try to hard with your comment, it shows through. Comments designed strictly to bring people to your site come across as what they are – advertisiments. When it comes to commenting on your blog or forum, be yourself.

As I’m sure some Zen master somewhere once said, don’t overthink it, let it happen.