According to the Expert...

My colleague has given me some pearls of wisdom when handling contests in the social media realm that I wish to share with my followers. Some I have already known/done, but let's go over them here.

Lesson #1: Use hash tags when you tweet about your contest on Twitter

• Popular ones are: #win, #contest, #sweepstake, #cheaptweet, #coupon, #free, #promotion, or #giveaway
• What are hash tags? The search on Twitter is frustrating. For instance, it is nearly impossible to find a person unless you know their exact Twitter name, hash tags enable tweeters to find you based on a one-word search. And luckily, there are many people out there searching for contests.

Lesson #2: With a fee, you can use the Promotions page on Facebook

• For our second contest, we are using this application; therefore I did not invest in it for our Twitter one. This could be worth the price tag if you need to spread the word. Also, I noticed when I go to the Promotions page on Facebook, individuals post on the wall their contests. This is completely free. It is debatable on how much traffic you will get, but every little bit helps.

Lesson #3: Use Twitter Promotions: http://www.coupontweet.com/

• Here you tweet about your contest on their feed. The only issue is that everyone and their mom is tweeting on this platform about their contest. An enticing prize would come in handy here. Also, be aware that this tool works more for those that have a large number of fans-- it tweets it on their page (that is always changing), and on your Twitter page.

Lesson #4: Everything with Twitter is fleeting.

• In order to promote your contest, you have to do it everyday, and every couple of hours. Will it annoy your fan base? It may, but it may drive others to apply if you are consistent in your approach.

Lesson #5: Use other social media sites

• The best way to promote your contest on other sites is to write a Press Release that has all the necessary links. Then submit this article to digg.com, reddit.com, etc.
• Don't be surprised if nothing happens with it, especially if you do not have a fan base. For me, three bloggers linked their blogs to my contest, which definitely helped with SEO. Hopefully, this happens with your contest.

So basically, what I learned from this first contest is that you cannot always depend on contests to gain followers, but rather spend the time interacting with tweeters. Let's see if that works for Facebook as well. First Facebook contest starts in less than 24 hours. Ek!

Today's News

Reaching out for help. Promoting is not easy when it comes to social media sites, and it does in fact take time. Today I have reached out to a fellow colleague to help spread the word about the contest. Social media cannot defeat me. This road has definitely provided some noticeable bumps along the way.

And it has barely been over a week! I cannot wait to hear what suggestions she has. And I will keep you guys tuned in as well.

We all want to learn the secrets of social media, especially me. And preferably, before I kill my Twitter and Facebook account.

Must.stay.optmistic.

What's Going On

So it is now week 2 of our Twitter contest, and I'm feeling hopeful. I conversed with one man on Hubpages about how there is too much clutter on Twitter to advertise in that realm. Ironic that here I am trying to advertise in a field where I'm getting bombarded with advertising. I have implemented many tactics to get the contest page out, and have had many successes in getting others to advertise for me as well.

Unfortunately, the Internet is noisy. I continue to trek through, but one thing I have definitely noticed about social media, persistence is a must. I am taking the time to interact with individuals on a personal level, which I know will pan out to benefit me in the end. As of now, I continue to talk, something I was luckily gifted with since birth.

Promoting-- How to Spread the Word

Social media does not allow for much promoting; if you get caught, bloggers will ramp you with vicious comments protecting their "no-advertising" forums. As though, a "no-promotion-world" exists on the Internet. Being clever and sneaky is important in promotion, especially in regards to social media. I have gathered a list of ways to do just that, but be cautious, it could always backfire.

1) Pay bloggers to mention your product.
2) Develop different avatars for blogsites that talk about other related products with some mentioning of your own product mixed in (but not too much promotion to seem fishy).
3) Be real. Hire an employee to do the interaction, but say what company they work for upfront. This person will not promote, but rather interact.
4) Use online tools to gather fake accounts to make it seem like your fan page and/or twitter account has more followers and fans than actuality.

These were the suggestions given to me before I started my social media adventure. And for the past few weeks, I can give you better advice on what are the cons of each.

1) Paying bloggers means money spent on advertising that to many is defined as "fading." A blog post, tweet, and status update shifts down until it is completely gone from the main page after a newer post, tweet, or update takes its place. So you have to ask yourself is it really worth paying?

• An exception to this rule is a trade-off. If you find a blog that fits your product to a T, you may be able to offer something worthy to the blogger that will entice him or her to write about your product. Many bloggers, just like you, are looking for traffic. Therefore the typical trade-offs are a link on your website and/or writing you a blog that will post on your website with a link back to their blog. If you have an area for "related links," it is definitely ideal to reach out to others. The only downside is driving traffic to their website and away from yours. Then again, if you have something interesting to offer the reader, they will most likely not leave.

2) Creating avatars can be quite tricky. You will need to hire a great copywriter or many employees to take the task on. And just like with Tweeter and Facebook, blogs are just as hard to gain traffic. Also, recently, there are many laws that are trying to be passed to "out" online avatar bloggers. Many sites are dedicated to finding out the truth of who is writing behind this pseudonym. If it comes out that all these different bloggers belong to one person or one company, you will be getting a ton of backlash. People do not like being lied to. Be careful where you step in the social media world.

3) This is the method I decided to undertake as my social media strategy. The reason? I tried #2 and received a couple of backlash from online social media sites that did not like that approach. Quickly, I was told that I was spamming and overstepping my boundaries. The community reached out and halted my efforts. So instead, of being something I am not, I put up my photo, used my first name, and forewarned everyone I worked for a car financing company. Everything I write deals with a little bit of me, my company, and my experience. Since I have developed this approach, I have interacted with many individuals who have given me positive feedback for my knowledge; plus no more angry comments, but honest ones.

• The negative side of putting yourself out there is, of course, it stings that much harder when someone takes a hit at you. Plus, I'm a writer at heart, and my company obviously limits some of what I have to say. It can be quite challenging to be yourself, but mind the company regulations as well. My company has been very supportive of my efforts, but will yours be?

4) Social media experts advise to never measure your success by fans and/or followers. I recommend the same, so why does it matter to look like you have many? In retrospect, it does not. Everyone starts from somewhere, the key is to look like there is growth. How do you get growth? By being active in the social media communities. Take time to read, comment, and befriend others. Everyone in the social media world is trying to get traffic and comments. If you spend the time building up interactions, the growth will come steadily.

• Many people believe that there are many "fake" profiles out there, therefore just befriending them may not help as much as you hoped. The best advice is to reach out to them, make them read a comment from you that is genuine and human (no bots here). This will most likely lead to reciprocation.

Be respectful in the social media world, and you will find kindness from others. It may not be the type of promoting the company is used to, but it will get the job done.

Our Very First Contest

For the company I work for, CarFinance.com, we wanted to run a contest to build up fans, followers, and application submissions at a faster rate. From all my research, contests are very popular on the social realm. In fact, if you just retweet or post a contest you can receive a lot of traffic; meaning, you do not spend a dime, but get some much needed attention. That is a great idea for some who are looking to save money when it comes to social media.

Our first contest's goal was to build up the number of Twitter followers. I was prewarned before this contest that you should never measure success on social media through number of followers, fans, likes, etc. Instead the focus should be on how much exposure or money social media is generating. Since this was our first contest, I decided to overlook this fact and worry about getting followers.

To prepare for the contest, I wrote my guidelines (to be featured on our website), created a graphic element (like an advertisement to put on photo-centric sites like Flickr), and wrote any copy I would need to complete the task, such as standard emails. I had everything ready to go.

In regards to the prize, instead of the traditional raffle of a large prize where only one person wins, I decided to do smaller prizes and award everyone. 99 cent music downloads sounded like a great idea! Everyone loves music from hip hop to country to classic rock. Amazon.com was a great source to purchase 99 cent gift cards (they allow you to email gift cards and write in your amount).

In order for a person to receive a prize, he or she must follow CarFinanceCom on Twitter. After that, he or she will tweet @CarFinanceCom with a one word description of their last car buying experience-- this part of the contest was my favorite part. It may be the writer in me, but hearing what creative and imaginative language people would come up with tickled my curiosity.

Our contest started on the 16th of August, and unfortunately is not gaining the support I had hoped. We have two more weeks, and I am still working on countless ways to promote the contest. Hopefully, it will get people going, and excited to participate.

Third Step, Interaction (EK!)

What to say? What to say?

Sometimes social media can make us speechless or want to go out and stage funny events to update our statuses. I have been guilty of doing both. Not really staging, but throwing old events like they just happened. It can be quite tedious to come up with updates, especially ones that draw attention. I am a huge fan of the "I Hate Mundane Facebook Updates," so I try to avoid them at all costs. Make things interesting. Here are some tips:

1) Retweet something interesting; just because someone already said it, does not mean you can't.
2) Post a link. You can pick a range, from news to humor, links are endless. Use digg.com or reddit.com to see what is hot right now.
3) Quote something. Quoting helps relieve the pressure of coming up with something smart to say. There are a ton of quotes out there as well as songs. Look around for inspiration.
4) Go with what you know best. Educating people on a certain subject matter that you are knowledeable is best. Expert opinions are valued highly.

Once you have an idea on how you plan to interact, dive in! If you make a misstep, you can always apologize. Within the first hour, I had to apologize to some bloggers for sounding to spam-like on their website. Another tip: Don't sound spam-like. But if you do, apologize and move on. Surprisingly, my apology gained 25 hits that week from one social media site. Sometimes controversy always works, huh?

Second Step, Profile

Your profile- a great way to promote your brand and show people who you are. There is a lot that goes into your social media profiles on different websites. For our company, I hired a professional that designed the Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter layouts. This graphic designer matched our website feel and look. When it comes to social media sites, consistency is a must. You want people to realize where they are and with whom they are interacting with. If you consistently change up your themes, this will inevitably confuse the reader. This, of course, applies for smaller brands, not corporated ones that already have a strong brand recognition in their fans.

Profiles of a company should be humanized on social media sites. Many times, large corporate companies, will add the face of one of their employees to create this face-to-face interaction necessary to run social media campaigns successful. For my company, CarFinance.com, my photo, language, and comments are visible to other readers. Instead of not knowing who to talk to, they now have a point of reference. This works especially well for smaller companies. From studies it has shown that most individuals do not trust companies, make a company a person, and you will definitely have a more positive response.

Just like Joel Comm recommended, profiles finished first then starts the interaction.

First step, RESEARCH

I didn't jump into the social media world blindly, I did some much needed reading. "Twitter Power 2.0," "Crush It!", and "Trusting Agents" are great books I can recommend. But be advised, much of what you learn on social media is not always in the books. For instance, "How do you respond if someone says something harshly about you?" "How do you respond if someone says something harshly about YOUR COMPANY?" "What do you do when your information gets marked as spam, but you are just trying to get your brand name out there?" Books won't help you deal with individual cases, but experience will.

Why I Think I Can Handle It

Since freshmen year in college, I have had a Facebook page (6 years ago and sadly, climbing). That was the only criteria I could manage to come up with that qualified me for the position. I definitely grew up alongside baby social media from Hotmail, AIM, Wikipedia.org, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, and now Twitter. And honestly, I was ready to try something new and challenging. To study an art form that is brand new to most, and terrifying to others.

How It Started

A couple months back, between a time of sending out resumes to a time of "screw it, let's go travel the world and spend every last cent in my savings," I got a job at CarFinance.com-- a company that specializes in giving out online auto loans. I interviewed for a copywriter position, and successfully landed the gige. For months, everyday, I would produce articles to be featured on the website (there was even a time when I could produce fifteen articles a day with a severe migraine to reward me for my feat). Two hundred and fifty articles later, I scored the social media position. That was a little bit over a month ago. And this is where I start my journey of collecting and maintaining fans, followers, and friends.