Social Media Marketing

Introduction 1 Part I: The Basics of Social Media 1 It's Not Easy, Quick, or Cheap 7 2 Understanding Social Media Strategies 15 3 Goals Need to Be Defined 23 4 It's ROC (Return on Conversation) not ROI (Return on Investment) 33 5 Know Who Your Audience Is and What They are Doing 41 Part II: It's About Conversation 6 The Conversation Happens With or Without You 53 7 Bring in Legal Early 59 8 Don't Be Afraid of the Negative 67 9 Understanding Each Community 75 10 Come Bearing Gifts 83 11 Bloggers Have No Boundaries 91 12 Every Business is Different 99 13 Don't Fall In Love 105 14 Don't Be Afraid to Throw Out What Isn't Working 113 15 Be Open to Trying New Things (but Don't Fall Off the Bleeding Edge) 121 Part III: Social Media from the Inside Out 16 Everyone in Your Company Has a Stake in Your Social Media Strategy 129 17 Plan Social Media Policies for Company Employees 135 18 Personal Ethics Matter 143 19 Define Who Owns the Conversation 149 20 A Great Customer Service Program Is a Natural Extension into Social Media 159 21 Interns Make Coffee, Not Social Media Strategies 165 22 Branding and Messaging Need to Be Consistent 171 23 Be Transparent: Trust and Readership Must Be Earned 179 24 Audiences Trust Icons and Avatars 187 Part IV: It's Not About You 25 Give Up Control and Drop the Ego 195 26 You Need to Be All "Ears" 203 27 Your Customers Know Your Products Better Than You 211 28 It's All About the Idea 219 29 Your Content Must Have Value 225 30 Sharing with Others Is Key 231 31 For It to Work, You Need to Be Social 239 32 Ask the Audience 245 33 You Get What You Give 253 Part V: How Social Media Fits into the Online Marketing Picture 34 People Do Not Want To Be Marketed To 261 35 The Difference Between Buzz Monitoring and Audience Research 267 36 Complementing Both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) 273 37 Links and Search Engine Results Are Byproducts of Social Media 279 38 Align Offline Marketing Strategies with Social Media 285 39 Create

Since 1999, Liana "Li" Evans has been active full-time in the search marketing arena, becoming well-versed in all avenues of social media and search marketing. Li runs the Search Marketing Gurus blog and is the director of social media for Serengeti Communications, a Washington, DC-based online marketing firm that focuses on building social media strategies for companies and training companies to bring online marketing in-house. Li has led the SEO strategy for an Internet Retailer 500 company, and was the SEO and social media architect for a Fortune 500 multi-million page entertainment Web site. As a database designer and programmer since 1992, Liana has developed technical expertise in dealing with large-scale retail sites and their dynamic natures. She holds degrees in both public relations and information technology, which lend well to working with client strategies in social media and search marketing. Li speaks and trains social media and SEO at Search Engine Strategies and other industry conferences.