The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue (affiliate link)

Shama Kabani is a leader in social media marketing.  She is trusted and she is well known.  Aside from the fact that she is pretty and that she will charm your socks off, she is an incredible communicator.  She communicates the basics of social media marketing as well as anyone I know.  If you have visited her website, Shama.tv, you will have learned lots of very helpful information while enjoying her video clips.

Zen of Social Media Marketing

It is no surprise that she is the first to put out a book on the basics of social media marketing.  She actually published it in an e-book form a couple of years ago.  I had already downloaded and read the e-book last year, but when she announced that it was coming out in a book, I was excited.

Shama (@shama) breaks down the reasons why you may need to incorporate a social media marketing plan in your business.  She addresses different questions and how social media marketing can be useful for all types and sizes of business.  But wait, just so you know that is not all theory, she has included 12 case studies with real life examples of businesses using social media marketing to improve their businesses.

Shama lays a foundation by addressing the basics of online marketing.  Then, she moves in to the use of websites, blogs and gives the reader a crash course on search engine optimization and how it can help improve your website in the rankings.  She recruited Steve West to write the SEO section.  In fact, Shama recruits Dave Kaminski to write the section on videos.  I like that she asked experts in other fields to contribute to the book.

Shama then turns her attention toward the “big three” in social media: Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook.  She gives the reader good advice on how to use the tool as well as how it can help you business.  These sections are worth the read because she gives information that is not widely known.  For instance, she gives information on the difference of a profile, a group and a fan page on Facebook and in which instance it is best to use one over the others.  After she writes about the “big three,” she turns the forum over to Kaminski to talk about why and how to use videos on websites.  This is an eye-opening chapter and has the potential to give business owners new ideas for online marketing.

Shama wraps up the book by addressing how and why a company should set up a social media policy.  It is worth learning and implementing before a crisis hits. Finally, she gives out a few suggestions on using social media such as how to synchronize updates using ping.fm and how to measure your efforts.

Shama holding a copy of her book

The section in which I like the most is the back part of the book.  Shama has included a “practical” section.  I mentioned earlier the case study section, but she has also included the Q&A section.  I am impressed with how easily she takes something that can seem so theoretical and communicate it in terms of the practical.   That is a skill that is rare, and Shama is one of the best I have seen.  Of course, in true Shama form, she included a way to enhance your experience using the book by offering an ongoing community online.  You will have to read the book for that information!

Shama utilizes quotes from several “experts,” and the forward is written by Chris Brogan.  For my friends in Central Arkansas, is worth noting that Shama quotes Samantha Hartley in the book who is also from Conway, Arkansas.

Thanks Shama for this book!  I enjoyed it even more than the e-book version.

I leaned from Shama Kabani the importance of a good profile pic when I was reading the e-book version of her new book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue.  In the book, she talks about having a professional head shot taken to use for your profiles.  Now, there might be some exceptions to this suggestions, but it is my opinion that having a professional head shot made for any professional profiles is the best thing to do.

I had used a picture taken with my camera, which is not a great camera, by someone who was not a professional photographer.  It served me well, but it was not a professional head shot.  Therefore, the first time I had the chance, I had one made by a professional photographer, Amy Jones Design, from Conway, AR where I now live.

Before

Before

After

After

A professional photographer can make you look so much better.  You can actually see less hair in my second pic than the first, but I look better!  They know how to make the setting and the back ground and the lighting work.  They use professional grade cameras, and they will touch it up on the computer to enhance the image.  I use the head shot in all of my professional social media profiles such as my twitter background.

The lesson?  Get a professional photographer to do a head shot.  Head shots are not as expensive as a normal session would be, especially if you just want digital copies.  I know photographers in Central Arkansas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  If you need suggestions, email me.

By the way, Amy has a contest going on through her Facebook page.  She is utilizing her social media profile creatively.

Central Arkanasas

Amy Jones Design

Chris Nolan

Bruce Allen

Brian Davis

DFW

Karyn Kelbaugh

Michael Rettig

Rodger James

OK, so you have bought an ad in the newspaper (yikes!), you spent thousands of dollars to build a website and you seriously considered that billboard space on the freeway.  You have done all of these things to match up with the bigger company down the street, but you haven’t increased any of your traffic at your place of business.

You then decided to quiz old-school businessmen and they tell you that you need to network.  “This is 2010,” you say.  You wonder if that is still a valuable strategy.  They are right!  Except in today’s business world, networking can be done, in part, online.

You have heard the hard-to-believe stories about companies using Twitter.com or Facebok to attract new customers and double their businesses.  I have heard those too.  Now, you are trying decide if social media is for you.

For one, while social media is a great tool, it by itself is not a “magic cure.”  Networking, by its definition, assumes communication and conversation, which means that it is a two-way street.  You have to engage “friends” in conversation.  These online friends are potential customers, and, to be sure, potential evangelists for your business or brand.  Your ability to engage your customers online gives you an advantage over the big businesses who might be using social media as a glorified email marketing strategy.

A couple of years ago, I visited an upscale restaurant in Fort Worth.  I never would have afforded it, but we were given a gift card as a treat that made it possible.  The food was awesome, and the service was outstanding.  The setting was wonderful.  What put this experience over the top was that the owner and head chef came out to meet the customers!  A year later, he had a book signing at the bookstore where I worked.  I recognized him and escorted him to where he would be signing his books.  He probably didn’t remember me, but I remembered him!  I am not usually an upscale restaurant kind of guy–I prefer a place like Cracker Barrel–but if I ever have the money, I would definitely consider going back, just because the owner came out to meet me.

Word-of-mouth has stood the test of time, and social media is a new vehicle to accomplish that.  Think about it, when you are looking for a new barber or dentist, how do you find one.  You simply ask trusted friends.  That is what social media is about.

According to social media guru, Shama Kabani, it is better to manage a couple of social media profiles well rather than to have several that are not managed well.  And more, she says in her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing which will be released in book form in April, we need to have a hub, and online presence, in which to direct the customer too.  Ideally, that hub would be a website or blog.  I believe, it is better to have a website which has the feel of a blog.  There are a couple reasons for this.

First, a blog is conversational, therefore, it reinforces the idea of conversation and of engaging the customer or your online friends.  Merely having a static, brochure-like website is stale and non engaging.  You can separate from your bigger company competition if you have the feeling of friendly and conversational when customers come to your website.

Second, a website which is built to have the feel of a blog, and possibly built on a blog platform such as WordPress, is active and the search engines love active.  Each time you update your blog or site, the site will ping the search engines to let them know that it has new content.  Over time, the search engines recognize that your site is active.  Active sites receive higher rankings in the search engines.  Also, when you update your site with articles or news, this creates some backlinks to your site.  As Darren writes in the article I linked to, backlinks are not the most powerful thing you can do, but they do help.  And by the way, always cross link your profiles with your website or blog.

It takes a while to put a social media strategy in to place.  You have to be intentional.  I recommend you working on it as if you were at a networking event or conference.  Ask questions, answer questions, engage people and seek out experts in your field.  Build up a base of friends or followers.  The rewards are great.  Not only will you tap into another market–a loyal market, but, eventually, your website rankings in the search engines will begin to rise, and the only thing you will have spent was time.

I have been fortunate to have found and connect with some people online who are “experts’ in Social Media and Social Media Marketing.   Social Media Marketing is such a new field that few people are considered experts.  One of the people I learned about early on was Shama Kabani.  Shama has been doing Social Media Marketing successfully for a few years now, and she has built a huge following and a reputation for being the “Zen of Social Media.”

Shama has lots of resources in which you might consider tapping in to.  First, there is Shama.TV, an online site full of short videos with lots oft tips.  You can find something useful every day.

The hub of all things Shama is her website The Marketing Zen Group.  She offers a free e-book and numerous written articles with great advice.  She also has a page with links to several resources including her blog.  Along with all of the wonderful resources and tips that Shama offers is her brand new book The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue (Ben Bella).  By clicking on the title, you can check it out at Amazon.com and order it if you like.  The book is set to be released on April 6, 2010.  You can read the first chapter on her website here.

I have learned so much from Shama, by what she says and by what she does in terms of social media herself.  Hopefully, you can learn from her too!

Thanks Shama