Aunty went to a Social Media Marketing workshop on 11/16/2013 at the beautiful new MOA Wellness Center in Kakaako, organized by Lori Chaffin, publisher of the Hawaii Wellness Directory.  The speaker was George del Barrio aka Geebz of PMI-International.

[Breaking news:  Geebz will be having another workshop “Social Media Marketing and Content“ on December 14, 2014 from 10:00 – 1:00 at the MOA Wellness Center.  Aunty already signed up – how about you?]

Here are Aunty’s notes. Aunty’s comments about the workshop follows: *please see update at the end

Social media is about talking to the culture of your market share.

Younger people are not as impacted with 30 second spots the way the older generation has been conditioned.  They are more affected by organic content – by asking questions, i.e. “how do I get cash flow”, “how do I change a power window regulator on a Nissan 1996” and entering it in a search box such as Google.

The call to action, “come to me because I am the best” is not as powerful as “I am helpful”.

Instead of screaming “buy from me”, successful businesses give the solution to people’s problems.  This generates so much good will, viewers will want to support these businesses or sites, perhaps even buying from the solution givers.  Answer the “why”, answer the questions that are the most asked, and you will be somebody’s hero.

Engage

Enforce your presence by telling an interesting story.  The story of your business is important.  What is it, why is it, who is it, i.e. back pain, make a video discussing lower back pain, or what drove you to do what you are now doing.

Geebz’s brother’s video “Golf Tips – Hit the Driver 300+ Yards” is on the first page on Google search because of the number of comments, both positive and negative (the haters).  We are in charge of preparing content to battle.  Prepare content for questions/answering/solving.  You want to “own” the space that you are in, and you want viewers to understand your service and the spirit behind your product.

Be real

Credibility is huge.  However, testimonial pages are seldom looked at.  The average viewer will only look at 1.8 pages.  Landing and index page must give solid information so they can figure out about you, what you do, it they like you, if they want to stick around from the very first page they land on.  Become an expert or an authority.  Get other people to talk about you.

If you have a Yelp presence, participate personally in the yelp discussions for your business– respond to the feedback.  This shows that the business owner is personally involved.  RESPOND, even if it is just a thank you for the kind words, or even more importantly, respond to the negative with a positive reaction or pro-active reply.  Others will read these comments and your replies to them affect their own opinions of you.

Be able to be found – I have done this, I have done that.  Have your friends write about you on their Facebook pages or blogsites.

For writers, use Ezinearticle.com to release an article to better brand yourself.  Do how to articles without referring to your business, branding or whatever you sell or your article will be rejected.  This site wants useful content, not self pitches.  The author box will have your info and can have your business links.  Being an author on an external site will give you more credibility.

Change, change and more change

Social media in new age marketing is fantastic, but ominous. The sociability of social media has now become part of us. The latest war in the Mid East started on Twitter.  Young ones are all about snap content, moving away from traditional means of communication or news.

Geebz’s one page has the entire page on the screen, to be swiped horizontally because that is how smartphones and tablets are interfaced.  The masses are not on the desktop or laptop computers nowadays as much as they are on tablets, phones, iPads.

[Some of Geebz’s clients/sites: *Haumana – George’s music    *Martin & MacArther koa furniture   * Healing Hula answers question what is healing hula   *Gibi – meditation music   *keyofGeebz   *spinthoughts – Geebz wordpress site links to regular site]

On Facebook

Facebook is huge for 40+ age.  The reason is that because they are older and don’t want to learn a new site or a new way to stay in touch.  On average, people spend 20 minutes on Facebook every day.  Facebook is struggling but now infiltrating our Timelines with ads, user defaults to Pages Feed, changes that are sometimes welcome, sometimes not.

Facebook Tips: If you “liked” a page, mouse over “Liked” button.  This shows options how you want it showing up on your pages.

If posting for a reason, always post with a picture because people scroll through quickly and stop on engaging pictures.

Post content that is worth sharing, talking to the people that you know.

Share something that you think is cool.

Have something that stops people in their motion.

When posting a blogpost on your Facebook page, click to read takes people back to your site.

Use share option on Facebook to personal page, or business page, etc.

Get people back to your website

Facebook is great for sharing, but the goal of the marketer is to get people back to their own website because there is no “buy” button on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.

When you blog in your website, treat it like bits of information.  Then post it outward on Facebook, etc.  This brings people back into your blog.  Even post other people’s neat stuff.  Example: Geebz posts useful content from someone else, i.e. unfolding Chinese take out boxes into a plate.  This gives people something to talk about it, share it, but it “came” from Geebz.

Post the most interesting stories of your business on your Facebook page once every 4 months because you have new Facebook visitors every 4 months.  When they click on your Facebook post, it takes them to your website blog.

When you post a blog on Facebook pages, share it on your Timeline. When your viewers click on it to read, it will take you to your blogsite.

When you give content that answers questions that people might be asking, it ranks you higher in searches.  Prepare content that promotes the popular culture, ie. using motocross in your title or content will show up in searches for motocross, even if your post might be about something else that has nothing to do with motocross, but the picture in the background is that of a motocross track.

Geebz Tip:  Filter in your email: to stop receiving marketing email, filter by the word “unsubscribe”.  This was a post by Geebz that got people sharing the post, bringing them into his website.

Evergreen – with traditional advertisements, you have to constantly re-buy, which is expensive and deteriorates and disappears with time.   An alternative to traditional is to use Twitter to run a promotion “1st 3 people to find Waldo wins prize”, which takes them to your website or video on YouTube which then leads them to your page.  Twitter is free.  Facebook postings are free.

Give content

For Hawaii Music Supply, Geebz coached them to put out videos on how to play the ukulele, online sales for ukuleles went way up. No where in the video did anyone say “buy from me” – instead did passive branding with lead in of business, wearsing shirt with logo.

Need to be proactive about posting – every now and then, shows current supply/product, next step is to do videos on why, the story behind. Keep your fans informed and close to you.

Sometimes we have to be our own mascots and find current problems that you know about, i.e. doctors: put out video about latest flu epidemic.

The title of your content is THE most powerful element of search engine results

Figure out what words or queries people would search for, and put them in the title of your posts and/or videos.  Think of the many different combinations of word/phrase searches.  Even the order of the title words matters.

If you decide to change your title, it will destroy your current position so instead put a “thought bubble” in the video/content about the new title so you don’t lose viewers or ranking.  If you do change your title, it will take 5-6 weeks turnaround for it to flush through the algorithms, and the content will need to be re-engaged.

The title has power words, repeat them in the content of your posts.

Description box under your Youtube video is HUGE – your title will have the keywords, so also have the keywords in the description body = keyword density = double bang.

Tags on the video sites – geotag if they must come into your physical site, such as a dentist’s office or massage therapist’s location.  Tag with key words.

Giving away info

Give away info for free – you will get fans or subscribers.  Can do push notification for free to subscribers at anytime, once a year remove restrictions to get things for free that they can download, prepping the market for when you do begin to sell something.

Resource videos are very powerful, how to videos are what people are searching for. When you do resource videos, talk to your viewers as if you know them already.

How to do videos

When doing video, film using interview style, looking away from the camera.  This works because it is not intrusive to the viewer, and more relaxing for the speaker.  Have a friend interview you, so it looks like you are talking to someone rather than directly to the viewer. If, however, you are doing an instructional video, then shoot head on and face the camera/viewer.

Go Pro cameras are now the rage, worn on the head to provide the viewer with the perspective of the one making the video.

After you do a info or instructional video, do blog content of 2 or 3 paragraphs.  Do bullet points.  This will lead in to your video, which will be imbedded into your blog.  This hypes shared value of that page.

How and why they watch

Lead people in by giving answers, leaders are very important.  People watch videos, the better the experience, the wow, the better the viewership.

Besides Youtube, there are currently 5 other powerful video companies: Vimeo.com – high end of compression, Metacafe.com – younger demographic, DailyMotion.com – European based, Videojug.com – very informational, educational, Viddler.com.

Take a video, make it work for you, flip keywords on all the different sites. This will get the content showing up in search engines five times more so your audience base can be even bigger, and your search ranking higher.

Geebz’s meditation music videos are language-less, so he went to google translate, entered keywords, copied, pasted, thereby puts the language copy in his tags. This works well if language were not important, i.e. for music videos, or demos that can be understood without the written or spoken word.

Get them interested

Reciprocal linking is good for algorithms for the blogging content that is linked to.  Pick the conversation of the time, i.e. latest health concerns, price jumps, housing prices, interest rates, GMO.  Engage conversation.

Instant sharing with your smartphone

How to use smartphone photos in real time:  Take picture, post on page “had a great time today blah blah” on personal and business profile.  Shows people in action, that you are active.  Example: Diamond Head Surfboard page – picture of each customer/sale with surfboard and then posts on Facebook.

Last and lasting words of Geebz wisdom

Don’t get caught up in the disappointments if you don’t get a lot of views, hits, fans.  Just keep going because it will happen. People will come.

Be organic, write, produce, give.

Make powerful titles.

Help people.  Give solutions.  Give answers.

Tell the story.  Tell an interesting story.

Don’t sell, bring people to you without pitching but by giving away useful information.

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Wow!  That was so much great information, Aunty’s eyes were bulging and even her lipstick wore off.  This workshop was only 3 hours long, but the lessons learned will span years.  

Aunty started blogging 3 years ago without any intention of being able to actually make money with her site.  The original intention was to share free information to people in need of getting their financial lives in order by investing, and then the sharing expanded to household hints, beauty hints, funny stuff, other stuff.  

However, a few months ago, after Chad Lamothe redesigned and advised on Aunty’s website, an inkling of what could happen to this website occurred – produce supplemental income somehow, someway, with Google adsense, affiliate ads, and now, social media marketing?  From Mark Ford’s teachings of having multiple streams of income, Aunty’s blogsite might actually become a viable source of retirement income!

Aunty will be meeting up with Geebz to get ideas, suggestions, and guidance.  Who knows where this can lead?  People often use Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Grandma Moses as role models of late starters.  Both lived for over 100 years.  Maybe Colonel Grandma Aunty  in Honolulu will follow in their example.  We’ll see where this next adventure will lead.

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[*Update, update!!!  Aunty met Geebz for a go-over meeting at Kapahulu StarBucks and WOW! – this man knows what he is talking about!  Aunty is SO excited to begin working with him.

If you have a website or blog that you want to take to the next marketing step – see Geebz.  There is a condition of people not knowing what they don’t know, and Geebz knows.  Geebz has more than pearls of wisdom – they are wisdoms of wisdoms.  Check him out as a composer producer musician at GeorgeDelBarrio.com or take his next class on Social Media Marketing if you want to get results doing what you love.  Aunty is definitely going to be there.  It was sold out the last time, so sign up fast so you can absorb the best from the best in a really fun and free flowing way.

Tadaaa!!! Aunty feels like floating now – still feeling uplifted from the session!!]