It’s all happening at the Social Commerce Summit and since we can’t all be there, Business Insider is boiling down the important points in a series of articles on their website. It’s still a lot to take in, so I’m narrowing it down even more.

Here’s my pick for the top 5 pieces of marketing advice culled from lists put together by Business Insider.

5. Like it or not — Google+

Jason John, Gilt Groupe marketing exec says:

Search is extremely important to us. Google will have its way and we will have to focus on Google+. We launched our presence on Google+ yesterday.

Like it or not, Google has added Plus pages to search results. Yes, it’s one-sided and it benefits them, but it can also benefit you. All you have to do is start posting to Google+. It’s that easy, folks. And hey, you don’t like Facebook anyway, so why not favor the opposition for awhile?

4. Games for good.

Lincoln Brown, co-founder of SoJo Studios:

We have around 450,000 players — around 2.5 percent of them pay for goods in the game. We give around 50 percent of our profits — but no less than 20 percent of our revenue — to social good. It turns social games from a guilty pleasure into something gamers feel good about playing.

Giving back, locally or globally, is a good thing for any company. It not only lifts your brand reputation but it’s good karma points for judgement day. If you have ties to a community, give a donation to a school or local charity. If you’re strictly on the web, donate to a variety of global charities, or find a single needy source that your customers can get behind. You may think you can’t afford to donate, but I’m telling you, you can’t afford not to.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

3. The light at the end of the tunnel.

Dave Thomas, director of community and social strategy for Radian6:

Ideally, you already understand what your business and your goals are. If you establish those goals in advance before you start any campaign, that’ll give you a leg up. Tie them to your existing goals.

This sounds simplistic, but I talk to business owners every day who don’t have a clear goal in mind. Sure, they want to be more profitable and more well-known, but what does that mean exactly? How do you plan to get there?

Define your goals and be specific. Then look at everything you’re doing and ask the question, how does this relate to my goal? If it doesn’t lead you where you want to go, dump it and move on.

2. A picture’s worth a thousand words. . . a video, two million.

Katia Beachamp, co-founder of Birchbox:

Facebook has been incredibly powerful, but YouTube was eye-opening. Birchbox creates its own content — people were creating videos and showing what a Birchbox was. It’s an authentic conversation about product.

YouTube is one of the most underused marketing tools around right now. It’s alive with users, it’s full of energy and it’s free. Show off your wares. Show people how to do something better. Show people what your website is all about. Don’t be intimated. We’re not looking for Oscar material. And don’t worry about people laughing at you, some of the most maligned videos are the most successful (Rebecca Black).

1. Power to the people.

Chris Bolte, VP of Demand Generation:

We allow anyone to submit a product and a video of the product, and the users vote on that. We engage small businesses to get products into our pipeline and give our consumers a vote in what we should be carrying. It’s really been on fire lately.

If there’s one thing that cements customer loyalty, it’s listening to what your customers have to say. Granted, you can’t act on every request, but when you can, make sure they know it. Allow them to vote on new colors, styles and options. Ask them to come up with a great marketing idea, then reward the best. Involve your customers in your business and they’ll be loyal to the end.

There you have it, 5 pieces of free and good advice that anyone can use.

Want more? Check out Business Insiders’ Social Commerce Summit coverage.

I can’t help you with the thinner or happier part, but here are 5 New Year’s resolutions that could make you a better, smarter, richer marketer.

1. I will listen to what my customers have to say.

The one great thing about social media is that it gives us instant feedback from customers. It’s not always what we want to hear, but it’s all valuable information. This year, make a vow to pay attention to what others are saying about you. Scan Twitter and Google for comments about your company and reply to folks where appropriate. Sure, you’ll find some whiners in the bunch, but if more people complain about slow shipping than praise your products, you need to look into it.

2. I will reward customer loyalty.

If you run a small business, you can’t compete with Amazon or Wal-mart in volume or price. What you can do is keep the customers you have by rewarding them for their loyalty. For brick and mortar businesses, use a check-in service to give discounts to returning customers. Online? Send out a bonus discount code to your regular shoppers. Or better yet, pop a free item into their next order. Doesn’t matter what it is, a sticker, candy, shoelaces — they’ll appreciate it.

3. I will allow my personality to show through.

It’s all well and good to represent your company online, but people want to do business with people, not corporations. Use social media accounts to converse, not just inform. Where appropriate, mention your favorite TV show, sports team win, or what you had for lunch. And don’t be afraid to let your sense of humor show through.

4. I will admit my mistakes without going overboard.

Part of showing your human side, is opening yourself up to criticism when you make a misstep. Chances are, it won’t even be your mistake. Maybe the CEO of your company let loose on Twitter with some unkind words. Perhaps a marketing stunt backfired? What ever happened, it happened. Use social media to apologize, make amends where you can them move on. It’ll blow over. I promise.

5. I will try something new.

This is both the simplest and the hardest resolution to keep. There are so many new ideas and options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. What happens then? You fall back on the same routine because it’s comfortable and familiar.

So pick one idea and give it a shot. Maybe it’s designing a mobile app for your brand. Or creating a weekly YouTube video that highlights what you do. Maybe it’s starting a Google+ page or using Hangout to create a focus group.

Your idea might fail. It might be too expensive or too difficult to manage. Or it could be a whole new source of revenue, an enlightening experience or the inspiration you need to take your company to the next level. You won’t know until you try.

What’s on your marketing To Do list for the new year? We’d love to hear about it.

I come across these 5 issues below every day. Any one of them could result in a someone nefariously hacking your account, stealing your identity, or even ransacking your home. If you have these covered, congrats, but please share them with your Facebook friends, because many of them are leaving themselves vulnerable.

1. Don’t Share Your Full Date of Birth

I still see a lot of Facebook users sharing their full date of birth. TURN IT OFF! There really is no reason why you should share you full date of birth with anyone interested. You’re making it one step easier for an identity thief to wreck your life. Besides, do you really want everyone to know how old you are? Head to your Profile Settings and turn it off! Friends will still see your birthday, just not the year you were born.

2. Don’t Share With Everyone

I personally only ever share my Facebook updates with those that are confirmed as my friends. While not foolproof, it does ensure that when I check in at a restaurant, or tell my friends I’m on vacation, I’m not broadcasting that to the entire world! Check to see if you are sharing your updates with just your friends or the entire world by looking for the drop-down option on your last update:

You can set your sharing option on a per post basis, or head to your Privacy Settings to change for all updates you post:

3. Don’t Friend Everyone

I’ve written many times that Facebook is not a popularity contest. Don’t add just anyone to your network, simply because they ask. Studies have shown that thieves and hackers set up fake profiles, just so they can try and infiltrate your network and steal information that is useful to them.

4. Don’t Click on Crap

While it may be tempting to click on a video that claims to show someone in their underwear or a man-eating spider, ask yourself two questions: is it likely to be real, and, do you really want to see it anyway? There are a lot of bogus posts made to Facebook and clicking on them could at best, make you look like an idiot, and at worst, breach your privacy.

5. Not All Emails are From Facebook

If you have email notifications switched on, be sure to double check their authenticity before clicking on them. Here’s an example of one that tried to phish for my login credentials.

It was not actually from facebook.com and the email address it shows is not the one I use for Facebook. Two good reasons to mark it as spam!

We Want Your Facebook Security Tips!

There are many more threats, but I felt motivated to share these five with you. Please post this advice to Facebook and warn your friends, they’ll thank you for it! And also, please leave a comment with any other security tips you may have!

Two months ago, Netflix Co-Founder and CEO Reed Hastings, announced a major change to the pricing structure for Netflix members which included increased fees for anyone wanting to get DVDs in the mail and stream movies.The result was a lot of bad press as loyal fans cried foul loud enough to be heard. Memberships were canceled, stock prices dropped and Blockbuster could be heard laughing all the way to bankruptcy court.

Yesterday, Hastings tried to patch things up with a lengthy note of apology and an explanation of things to come.

“My greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”

This is good forward thinking on his part, and certainly true seeing as what happened to their competition. He goes on to say,

When Netflix is evolving rapidly, however, I need to be extra-communicative. This is the key thing I got wrong.

In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success. We have done very well for a long time by steadily improving our service, without doing much CEO communication.”

Wait. So what he’s saying here is, I should have kept my mouth shut and slowly made changes, sneaking them into the system so no one noticed. Kind of like how restaurants are serving smaller portions but charging the same price or how Facebook keeps changing my sidebar links.

Surely this isn’t good business, is it?

So Hastings went against his own better judgement and announced on his blog that Netflix will soon split into two companies. One will serve only streaming content (Netflix) and the other will continue the DVD by mail program (Qwikster). Now, in order to get both services, you’ll have to pay two fees to two different companies, maintain two profiles and any reviews you leave will not cross-over to the other site.

That’s the way to win back an audience! Yikes.

As you can imagine, the response has been mostly ugly. Maybe he should have apologized in one post and announced Qwikster in another? Would any kind of an apology that didn’t include a price roll-back be acceptable? Probably not. And therein lies the problem.

It’s important to manage one’s reputation but is a public apology for anything short of breaking the law really necessary? Or a good thing? Netflix made a plan for the protection of their own business and they needed to stick by it. Raising prices is not a crime. Especially not when it includes an additional set of features. So what went wrong?

The trouble is, people don’t deal well with change and that’s something you need to think about when you’re about to make one. Send out an email to your customers with an explanation before you need to send an apology and know that some people aren’t going to like it. In the case of Netflix, they’ll lose some of their customers, but with proper marketing of the new streaming service, they’ll likely gain customers who aren’t interested in mailed DVDs.

I say, no apologies are needed. Business is tough all over and a company has to do what a company has to do. What do you say? Is it good to admit your mistakes to your customers or is it better to privately fix it and move on?

First, it’s a lot easier just writing for a popular blog. You can create a post and send it in and not have to worry about too much (unless, of course, the editor finds the post to be, well, lacking or if he just finds that it sucks out loud).

As the managing editor, though, I also have business responsibility of Marketing Pilgrim but, honestly, that’s fun. I get to talk to some pretty cool folks who are into the Internet marketing world in a big way. They are excited so I get excited with them. It’s fun, it’s informative and it’s never dull. If you want to talk to me about being a business partner of MP please start the conversation here. I would love to create a solution that works for us both.

Now, here’s the part I could live without with regard to managing a blog. The fact that everyone and their brother thinks I should be honored that they blindly sent me a demand / request for Marketing Pilgrim to either A) pay attention to their story (PR types) or B) accept a guest post. I would like to address these two types individually with some helpful hints as to what to do and what to avoid with regard to helping us out at Marketing Pilgrim.

Notice I said helping us out? It’s not like we don’t want to hear from people. In fact, it’s people who move information around for others to pick up on that can make or break us here. I would love to hear from even more people with ore ideas! We want to hear from everyone but there are some tricks I will share with you that I know work here (which means they may not be worth a hill of beans elsewhere but that’s not my concern ).

For PR Types

I really want to hear from you but guess what else? I would like to get to know you as well.

It’s doesn’t have to be in a drawn out online interaction. It could just be some quick exchange acknowledging that we are both human beings and not just cogs in some dysfunctional information machine that has forgotten about the flesh and blood element of life.

Your idea may actually be good but your cookie cutter presentation is uninteresting and bland.

I think a lot of PR folks are doing a disservice to their clients by simply throwing stuff over the fence and waiting for someone to catch on. I know this isn’t new ground but since it still happens around the clock I suppose either folks aren’t listening or they simply need a reminder.

Bloggers and their readers like pictures

Hey, I admit it. I like pictures. So do our readers. If you send me a press release with 500 words and no graphical representation of your data or story, your chances of being considered shrink considerably.

Easy on the arrogance

I don’t personally buy the approach that many take which is to try to make me feel stupid if I don’t do something about your information. Sure, I know it’s important to you but until we have some relationship in place you are just like the boy who cried wolf. Your claims of world changing news sound so shrill and commonplace that I wouldn’t know if something really was important because I have, in effect, tuned you out.

Now information for aspiring guest bloggers

Use the garage please! (UPDATE: As of October 1, 2011 the garage’s doors have been closed)

We have set up garage.marketingpilgrim.com for literally anyone to submit a guest post that could at the very least reside there or even possibly get ‘picked up’ for the main blog. Use it please! Don’t think it’s a spammer’s paradise though. Too many links and obvious SEO tricks mean you don’t even get to park in the garage. We know what you’re up to!

For the love of Pete, stop acting like it would be an honor for us to use one of your posts!

Confidence quickly turns into arrogance and arrogance is not attractive. Let us decide together if this would work or not.

Please stop trying to butter me up and thinking that’s going to help your cause.

What helps get you noticed here at Marketing Pilgrim is a good clean, crisp message that has no fluff and provides information that would be useful to our most valuable asset: our readers. Trying to butter me up is a time waster for us both.

If your great post has been posted elsewhere then we are not interested. Period.

If you are not willing to create something that is unique for Marketing Pilgrim then please don’t even bother pitching us. The last thing we need to do is look like one of those crappy scraper sites that re-uses content for our advantage. There is no advantage to us if we are simply reprinting something from somewhere else.

Timing is everything

Sometimes it will feel like it is so easy to be considered for a guest post. The reason? We are in need of content that is about Internet marketing. It’s that easy. Got an interesting take on a hot issue in Internet marketing? Write about it. You may be surprised.

Be ready and follow through

It’s amazing how many times I will start the conversation with a guest blogger then find out that they can’t produce anything for weeks into the future. If you are not ready to do something within a few days then don’t ask. It’ll save us both time.

Oh and following through is incredibly important. There is no better way to never be considered for anything in the future than saying that you are going to have something ready by a certain date but you don’t follow through. That’s bad policy anywhere in life so we are no different.

Targeted content is everything

At least take the time to consider what we do at Marketing Pilgrim and the subject matter we like to give to our audience. I get people who want to write about things that are simply off topic. It’s easy really. PAY ATTENTION.

Join the conversation

If you are a regular commenter and you have some input into what conversations occur around the content at Marketing Pilgrim, you are first in line to be considered for a guest post.

There’s more but I won’t waste your time right now. I hope you see where I am coming from. As the managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim I am concerned about optimizing the blog for our readers. Good content leads to more readers, which leads to a better experience for everyone.

So, whether you are a PR type or you want to write for us here at MP just remember that we are people too. We like to know a little something about the folks we have sitting at the table with us even if it’s just for a short time. We’re funny that way.

So if you made it this far, congratulations. I hope this helps everyone get closer to being on the same page. If it doesn’t then it will be business as usual. Just don’t be offended if it looks like we don’t’ care because now you know the reasons why we do!

Undoubtedly, that’s why PR people put “Don’t be a Jerk” on their list of Do’s and Don’ts for social media success. “Mastering Public Relations in Social Media” is a new white paper from PRNewswire and it’s loaded with practical information everyone can use.

Another gem from the report is “Don’t worship false Gods.” This comes from Sam Whitmore who cautions all those who get excited about social media numbers.

“If a Facebook page has 500 ‘likes,’ the company thinks that there are these 500 people who go back to the page all the time and consume everything on it. Don’t worship false gods.”

“Don’t put up too many internal roadblocks,” doesn’t have the same irreverent ring of the first two don’ts, but it’s just as important. Peter Himler of Flatiron Communication says,

“You can’t take two weeks to approve a Tweet. Heck, you can’t take two days.”

Social media posts have a short shelf life, so the person who handles the accounts for your company, has to have the authority to post and respond without pre-approval. On the other hand, that same person has to communicate the plan to the rest of the company so no one is caught of guard. It won’t do to announce a Twitter treasure hunt contest without letting the tech guys know that the servers are about to take a big hit.

The final two do’s and don’ts work as a team: Do… establish a set of social media principles and Don’t… forget to review/rethink them on a regular basis.

Social media is changing fast, so while it’s good to have a plan, understand that a month from now, that plan may be out-dated.

For more Do’s and Don’ts, download “Mastering Public Relations in Social Media.” It’s free and it’s a good read.

“The days of controlling the message are absolutely over. At best you’ll be invited in and you’ll get to co-create and participate with consumers.”

Wendy Clark, senior VP-integrated marketing communications and capabilities at the Coca-Cola Co., gave a presentation at the AdAge Digital Conference where she talked about how social media has completely changed the game for marketers. Though she was using her own multi-billion dollar company as a reference point, much of what she said applies to marketers at every level, from individuals promoting their own talents to small businesses and on up.

She talked about how over the years we’ve gone from delivering one message to the world, to delivering targeted variations, to the current climate where we create conversations that work two ways. She calls this new landscape, “liquid and linked.” Liquid because every piece of marketing has to spread out to the very furthest communication point and linked because it all has to relate back to the core message.

The conversation consists of four parts, Paid, Owned, Earned and Shared. The diagram she used in her presentation showed each element as circles that intersected at the center point. Said Clark, “No one circle will take you there any longer. You can’t pay your way into greatness anymore.”

Owned

“Owned” media are all of the resources a company owns that can be used to promote their brand. In Coca-Cola’s case, it includes the cans you drink from. Millions of people see, buy and handle those cans on a daily basis, so why not use them to help communicate the brand message? She demonstrated with a slide showing Coke cans that featured summertime graphics. It’s a natural connection. Coke and the summer barbeque, Coke and the beach.

You may not have a fleet of trucks, vending machines or even product packaging, but what do you have that you can use to tell your story? If you mail any kind of a product to a customer are you making the most of the box? It could be a reusable box that would spread your message when your customer uses it to mail a package to a friend. It’s a small thing that can make a big difference.

Earned

Earned media is word of mouth and how people can be inspired to promote your brand. Clark did an experiment where she searched for the Coca-Cola tagline (using all of the major search engines so she wouldn’t get caught endorsing any one) and came up with 52 pages of results. She went to the final page and looked at one of the last items. It was a link to a blog post where the author had used a variety of Coke taglines in a commentary about the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. Now that’s advertising.

In another example, she showed a clever YouTube video where a young woman hears music every time she opens a bottle of Coca-cola. Clark laughed as she said, “the funny thing is, I had to get her permission to show her video in this presentation but she didn’t have to ask my permission to use the trademark of the world’s most powerful brand.”

Coca-cola isn’t complaining about the use of their trademark, they’re celebrating. According to Clark, there are 146 million pieces of Coca-Cola content on YouTube. Only 26 million were created by her company. The rest were created by consumers. “The days of controlling the message are absolutely over. At best you’ll be invited in and you’ll get to co-create and participate with consumers.” In the past, creating an impression was good enough, but now, she says, it’s expression over impression

Shared

Part of the shared media component is social listening. Clark tells a story about a man who randomly Tweeted that he wasn’t feeling well and needed a brandy to make him better. The folks at Coca-Cola’s VitaminWater branch Tweeted back that if the brandy doesn’t work, how about a free bottle of VitaminWater? The man said sure, he got the product and Coke got the “moneyshot.” A photo of the man drinking the product which he sent out to his whole network. Says Clark, Coca-Cola may have the largest group of followers on Facebook, but those followers all have networks that combined represent an even bigger potential audience. Those are the people you want to reach.

Forget the “Like” button. It’s all about the “Share.” “It’s the most critical thing. “Like” important, “Share,” more important. We have to create content that is shareable.”

The trickiest part of the share component is not overstepping. Says Clark,

“The minute we overstep in that community and try to push our message and not celebrate the message of the community our disconnects shoot up. You have to co-create and participate and honor the community.”

She admits you must curate your social media pages to some extent, removing porn and spam, but beyond that, she suggests letting the community lead you where you ought to go.

Social media has changed everything. “It’s real time, it’s 24-7, it’s constantly changing. it’s dramatic.”

To make the most of it, a marketer has to be all of those things, too. In the now, on all the time, constantly changing it up and dramaticly engaging. Do your social media efforts do all of that?

If you have a half hour, I suggest you watch the full presentation through LiveStream, (Thanks AdAge) it’s worth your time.

Brian Watkins of Adobe has an interesting new webcast available that talks about how you can get your own VaBeachKevin, because seriously, we all need at least one like him.

To begin with, you have to locate potential evangelists. You can use a variety of monitoring tools that will search and filter social media for keywords related to your brand, but for a quick look, Watkins suggests you simply search Twitter yourself. Once you have a list of people who have been known to promote your product, Watkins suggests a step that many marketers skip. He says you should get to the know that person by doing a little research. Take it out of Twitter and find out who they work for, what are their interests, why does your product resonate with them? This information is out there. Once you know how to work the Google magic you’ll be surprised, and probably a bit frightened, by what you can find.

The most important step is the next one; give that person what they need to be a star. When I heard Watkins say this I threw up my hands and said hallelujah, brother. This fits right in with the FanTrail app I mentioned the other day and KMart sending gamers to E3. If you give a fan something special, he’ll tell the world and if it’s special enough, he’ll be your brand evangelist for life.

Watkins says that instead of handing out logo t-shirts at a convention, they might invite social media influencers to present for a few minutes. He also talks about treating social media fans as if they’re the press. Offer them a scoop, a review product, a tour of the office. The last time I went on a TV series set visit, more than half of the invited guests were people running small fan sites. Publicists have learned that the New York Times may reach a wider audience, but the fan site is precisely targeted and they’ll give the scoop more page time than a bigger publication.

Finally, he makes a point that is going to be tough for some marketers to do. Point them in the right direction and then get out of their way.  Instead of using social media to push traffic to your website, let the conversation unfold where it is. Go fishing where the fish are, says Watkins and that leads us back to the conversation we all had yesterday about why have a website when you have Facebook.

Imagine this. Stefano posts to his Facebook that he just had the most delicious cookie he’s ever eaten. His friends comment and say, really, where can we get them? Stefano is probably going to answer them, but you come in as a representative of the brand and say here’s a link to our website where you can find out all about our cookies, they’re great, here’s a coupon, yum, yum.

Now, there’s a good chance that the conversation is over because your response looks like spam and it feels a little like you were spying on their private chat. (Even though Facebook is far from private.) Using the Watkins method, you could email Stefano and offer him a free box of cookies for him and five friends. Now Stefano himself is going to mention your generosity and ask who wants free cookies? Me! Me! Me! That conversation is going to continue and when everyone gets the free cookies, they’re going to talk about it on their Facebook pages.

Yes, brand evangelists are a marketer’s best resource as long as you use them wisely, don’t abuse their kindness and reward them in meaningful ways that make them feel like a star.

If you’re got the time, click here to view the whole webcast. It’s free and it’s loaded with great information about how to make and measure a social media plan. It’s good stuff. Yum. Yum.

For most companies, this means running customer service phone lines or responding to email, but some intrepid explorers are giving Twitter a whirl. It’s a logical step, seeing as how people love to use Twitter to complain about companies, so why not use the same method to turn the consumer around?

The folks at Fortune decided it was time to put this new option to the test, so they took their problems to eight companies known to have customer service agents manning Twitter. They dealt with banks, airlines, shopping sites and even got technical assistance for their cable TV. In each case, they delivered the question by Twitter, Phone and through the company website.

Care to guess which method was most effective most of the time? It was our old friend the telephone.

Of the companies tested, only Microsoft, Rubbermaid and Comcast Cable were able to completely solve the problem by Twitter but it wasn’t a short process. It took Comcast twenty minutes and several replies before the rep offered to refresh the box. Seven minutes into a phone call, the reporter got the same result and it took only five minutes when he connected through online chat.

What’s clear from their first hand testing is that poor customer service often stems from a failure to communicate and that’s hard to get around when you only have 140 characters. Simple answers and answers that can be solved through a forwarded link, are really the only kinds of customer service problems Twitter is equipped to deal with. Anything more complicated and the required amount of back and forth posting is simply too great.

Now if you’re thinking, not my end of the company, doesn’t matter. Think again. Poor customer service can undermine everything a good marketer puts out there and it can happen in a flash. We’ve talked about this before and it can’t be emphasized enough. Acquiring a new customer is hard work, keeping that customer is even harder, especially if you have the rest of the company working against you.

As a marketer, you may not be directly responsible for customer service issues, but you should still make it part of your routine to scan social media for problems. Sending a “how can I help you” tweet to an unhappy customer might be all that’s needed to prevent a public blowup. Just make sure that you actually do help them once they contact you or you’ll be compounding the problem.

The other thing we can take away from Fortune’s test is that social media isn’t the solution for everything. Yes, it feels like it’s the key cog in the works these days, but there’s still no substitute for talking to an actual human. Don’t let your social media drive keep you from practicing tried and true marketing and customer service techniques.

Now, let me get that door for you and if you need a place to stay, I can recommend a great hotel where they give you a hot, chocolate chip cookie when you check-in.

Come Together: The Business Wisdom of The Beatles is a simplified, straightforward look at the steps that made The Beatles one of the most successful musical acts in history and how those same steps can be applied to business.

The Long and Winding Road

The book is divided into 100 chapters but don’t let that put you off. Each chapter is a very succinct look at a very specific concept including Thinning the Ranks, Communication, Mediation, Inspiration and if you’re lucky, Paying the Price of Fame. It takes The Beatles, and a company, from the early days of struggling to make ends meet, to handing over the torch to the next generation once you’ve reached the end. It’s a “Long and Winding Road,” but Courtney and Cassidy say that their system can lead to “Money” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

The joy of this book is in its simplicity. Yes, it’s 100 chapters long, but it’s under 300 pages which means most chapters are only a page or two long. There are no complex theorems here, just common sense advice that we already know but don’t always use.

Look at Chapter 7. It’s titled Image and Branding and it’s all about one of the most talked about elements of the early Beatles – their mop-top hairdo. Says the authors, the hairdo came about when the boys met Astrid Kirchherr and her boyfriend Klaus in Germany. Astrid had cut her boyfriend’s hair in an unusual style for a very practical reason, to hide his large ears. George co-oped the style and John and Paul followed, but then drummer Peter Best refused. He preferred to stay with the greasy, slicked back style that was Elvis Presley’s trademark. Eventually, it was this haircut (which became known as The Beatles Cut but should have been called The Klaus) and their matching suits that made them special in a world full of rock ‘n roll bands. Their haircut literally became iconic and was constantly brought up in interview after interview. It also led to one of the most repeated stories about the lads, the one where the reporter asks them what they call the haircut and George says “Arthur.”

To apply this to business, we only have to look at the colors and graphics that define a company. What do you see in your head when I say Coca Cola, or Volkswagen or Apple? A clean, clear, easily recognizable icon is essential for a business that wants to rise above the competition.

Money Can’t Buy Me Love

The most valuable chapter in the book is Chapter 29, “No Pain, No Gain.” This is the Ed Sullivan years. The Beatles drove themselves to exhaustion, touring, recording, filming a movie and putting themselves out there for their fans. They weren’t earning what they were worth and what money they did make, they didn’t have time to spend. While they were in the middle of it, the probably didn’t even notice the landmarks like the TV gigs, record breaking ticket sales or the moment they had twelve songs in the top 100. When you’re knee deep in it and living on Red Bull and Tums, it’s nearly impossible to see the gains, but you have to. Ask a trusted friend to point them out, if you must, but don’t give up because you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. Imagine if The Beatles had given up at the end of that year. If they thought they were too tapped out to write another song. We wouldn’t have “Yesterday” or “All You Need is Love” or “Let it Be.” What a shame, that would be.

Richard Courtney and George Cassidy have done a fine job of combining an interesting subject like The Beatles with the inspiration to succeed at whatever it is you do. The book may be a little too simple in spots, but all of the advice is worth pondering no matter what stage your business is in.

Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles will be available in early March from Turner Publishing.

Full disclosure time: I was given a copy of the book for review but that did not impact my opinions.

I’m pretty “chuffed” with my latest article which shuns the trend of making 2011 predictions and instead focuses on the unwritten laws of reputation management in 2011.

Here are the first three to whet your appetite…

Law #1 – Everyone has an online reputation

We all have an online reputation to maintain. Don’t believe me, go ahead and “Google Yourself”–I promise you won’t go blind! Even if you don’t find anything written about you, then that’s still your reputation–or lack thereof. In 2011, you should make sure that what’s found in Google, Facebook, Twitter et al is something you’d be equally comfortable showing your mom or your boss!

Law #2 – Your reputation is an extension of your character

It doesn’t matter how hard you work on managing your reputation, it will only ever be as solid as your actual character. Tiger Woods had a reputation of being the greatest golfer–and a family man. His character revealed otherwise. As Abraham Lincoln once said,

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

Law #3 – Every reputation has an achilles heel

While Toyota may have spent years telling us that its cars are the most reliable in the world, sticking gas pedals told a different story. In fact, even though Toyota tried to deny the increasing incidents of sticking accelerators, its customers were the ones steering the car manufacturer’s reputation in another direction. Instead of denying the issue, Toyota should have been the first to recognize it! When you recognize and acknowledge your weaknesses, before your customers, you have the opportunity to craft a response before the public outcry. Do you know your reputation’s weakness?

You can continue reading The 11 Unwritten Laws of Reputation Management.

Online, it could be a series of very positive product reviews that seem to come from Average Janes when in reality they were posted by an employee of the company.

Back in September, R2Integrated did a survey on the topic and not surprisingly 87% of the people said they thought companies planted reviews. What’s interesting is that only 35% said it was “highly unethical” and only 9% said they’d stop buying from a company if they found out they were astroturfing. Why that’s particularly fascinating is that the news coverage which followed the survey all leaned heavily on how it proved astroturfing was bad for business. Really? I’m not getting that. Many studies have shown that people trust the reviews of people they know over ones they don’t, so a whole page full of astroturf reviews probably aren’t helping the cause anyway.

Still, there is that old “truth in advertising” issue. That’s why the FTC busted Reverb Communications last year after it was revealed that they were paying people to put positive reviews on their client’s iPhone apps.

But when we look at social media and how we use it to promote products, aren’t we all astroturfing to some extent? Tell me you’ve never hidden behind a fake Twitter account, or an anonymous blog comment. The internet was designed to allow people to be who they want to be at any given moment. Right now, I’m a middle-aged marketing writer but later today I’m going to be a hip, twenty-something who knows all about fashion. Like Hollywood, marketing is about creating an illusion and I don’t see where that’s so bad. (Barring the use for illegal purposes, of course.)

I prefer to see creativity over safe. If I’m drawn in to a clever YouTube video of a ten-year-old doing off-the-cuff movie reviews, then I don’t care if it’s actually been scripted and filmed by a studio.

When it comes to stocking a site with company written reviews, as long as their telling the truth, does it really make a difference if they were paid to write them or not? I say no. What do you say?

Last Friday was free shipping day, so it was the perfect day to get the best out of my win. Except for the fact that the system they use sees a gift code as a discount code so I could only use my gift certificate or get the free shipping, not both. Why? A gift certificate is money, not a discount. Determined to fix this, I called the company’s toll free number in the early evening, California time. I was directed to the “customer service” line which was a recording saying they were closed. Hmmm.

Next, I tried to email my question. I got a response on Monday. Three days after the fact. The response was one line. “Call us to discuss.” Seriously? So I called and got a very soft spoken, uninformed woman who seemed to be looking around the office as she spoke, desperate to find someone with knowledge to put on the phone. She couldn’t find anyone and said they’d have to call me back.

Incredibly, they did call me back and I explained the issue and was told, yes, this is how it is, can’t have free shipping and use a gift certificate. Also, my detailed order had disappeared from the shopping card so I had to start over.

Now, right here is where the customer rep should have said, let me take your order over the phone and we’ll deduct the $14.00 shipping for your trouble. No. Her response was, ‘well, at least you still have the gift certificate so you’re not out anything.’ I then commented on the fact that it took three days to respond to my issue, let alone the fact that it was the holiday season. She informed me that the business is closed on weekends for religious reasons. Now, I appreciate their devotion, but is that anyway to run an online business? No customer support, not even a guy responding to emails over a weekend leading to a holiday?

Now you could say, hey, Cynthia, back off, you’re getting something for nothing, right? But I’d say, that’s not the point. The point is, their company made a marketing decision to get bloggers to offer a giveaway. It was a good decision because giveaways are a great way to introduce your brand to new people, like me. I had never heard of the company, so I was a potential new customer. But what the marketing person accomplished, they wiped out with bad customer service and a quibble over $14.00. They could have offered me an extra item for my trouble and I would have paid the shipping and been happy. I would have been out singing the praises of the company instead of telling everyone I know not to buy from them.

My point is a simple one – marketing is hard work. Getting potential customers through the door, virtual or otherwise, is hard work. Don’t let bad customer service ruin everything you’ve worked for. You don’t have to have highly-trained customer service reps working round the clock. In this case, an apologetic, properly written email on Monday morning would have gone a long way.

Here’s what I recommend. Ask a friend to buy something from your company. Follow the whole process from clicking through an ad or email to the final delivery. Then ask them to grade the process including ease of purchase, the tone and effectiveness of emails, packaging and delivery time, and, if they do have a problem (maybe you could make one happen), the customer service response.

Test your own systems and I hope you’ll be nothing but pleasantly surprised.

Yeah for the internet! But Renee Huang of The Globe and Mail says that the internet is a poor substitute for the old fashioned meet and greet.

“Research in the business-to-business world suggests the No. 1 reason for selection of a supplier is the personality of the sales team or seller. This is above the technical specs, marketing form, anything else.”

Huang goes on to talk to several small business owners who say that face time with potential clients and customers was key to their success.

Now, I’ll admit that as a collective, we’ve gotten overly dependent on the internet. My friend recently lost her home connection for two days and you would have thought she was living without food and water. I’m not mocking, believe me, I feel the same way. I work and play online. I’ve never met 99% of the people I do business with, but that hasn’t stopped me from doing business and doing it well.

My husband, on the other hand, is a face-to-face guy. When ever I’m frustrated over a communication breakdown with a client he starts in with, “why don’t you try picking up the phone instead of this ridiculous emailing back and forth!”

Ah! Texting! That’s the answer!

I guess the biggest advantage to a meet and greet is that it’s harder to say no to a person’s face than to their Facebook. And I suppose that some people will reward the effort if you show up at their office with a box of cupcakes (even if you’re not selling cupcakes.) But when it comes to you, to your business, do you really think that your business would be better off if you could travel the country and pitch your wares one-on-one?

Face time, if you can get it, is a good thing, I’m sure. But when I count up how many business emails I get after midnight and on weekends, I doubt that anyone has time for a leisurely lunch to discuss the sale of a new product. That is, unless you don’t mind meeting at an all-night diner.

What are your thoughts on face time versus connecting via the internet?

According to eMarketer, 27% of retailers said they’d spend most of their marketing budget on social media, up from 18%. And 75% said they had a social media strategy this year as opposed to only 51% last year. But does this rise in activity mean a rise in sales?

We’ve been told that Black Friday and Cyber Monday both did very well this year, but is it as a result of all the social media air time?

Practical eCommerce took a look at this very question and came up with some interesting answers. They began with numbers from Hitwise who said that, “social networks referred 4.39 percent of traffic to the top 500 retail sites on Black Friday 2010.”

4.39? That’s not so much.

Their expert, George Eberstadt, CEO of TurnTo Networks says:

“The social stigma against shilling is as strong today as it’s ever been, and that limits the amount of commerce-related sharing that’s ever going to go on – the popularity of social media hasn’t changed that.”

Shilling. Haven’t heard that word in awhile, but it’s a valid point, except during the holiday season. Because everyone is on a buying spree, we’re much more likely to tolerate a barrage of sales Tweets and updates. But imagine if marketers maintained that same enthusiastic level of social media marketing throughout the entire year? I love a good deal, but I’m already growing weary of the onslaught.

The article goes on to say:

“Eberstadt added that he believes social commerce will ultimately be more important to brands and stores than social media marketing. “Social will be more important as a discovery and decision-making tool for people that are in-market for goods and services than as a way to promote and advertise.”

An interesting distinction and one I believed we’ve addressed here before. It’s the difference between conversational Facebook updates and a continuous stream of sales pitches.

So while your Facebook and Twitter followers might be okay with “Save 50% on Blu-ray Players” today, after Christmas they’re more likely to respond to “what’s your favorite movie on Blu-ray?” They’ll not only respond but they’ll share their answer with their Facebook friends who will also come and answer, resulting in more “likes” for you and more potential customers when one of them decides to buy a Blu-ray player.

What do you think? Are your social media efforts paying off in actual sales, or is brand awareness the ultimate goal?

What does the cancellation of a low rated TV show have to do with marketing? I’ll tell you. Or rather, I’ll show you. Just look at the ad FX used to advertise the series. It was one of a couple of graphics that all featured snarling dogs. Add that up with the title of the show, “Terriers” and you gotta figure its about dogs, right? Wrong.

Terriers was a series about two friends who become unlicensed private detectives and stumble into a major conspiracy theory — I think. I’m not really sure. I couldn’t find a proper description of the plot on IMDB or even the show’s actual website.

I did find critics saying that this was one of the most innovative, action packed, quirky crime dramas on TV. Who knew? I didn’t and apparently, I’m not alone in that.

The point, if you haven’t figured it out by now is that the old adage is true. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Trying to be cute and clever can be confusing and though people may remember your ad, they won’t remember what it’s for.

John Landgraf, the President of FX, chose to comment on the situation, a very unprecedented move, by saying that the marketing was not at fault. He told Deadline Hollywood:

He ordered a study with 600 people who had not seen the show that examined the effectiveness of Terriers’ TV promos that had dominated the series’ marketing campaign. The testing showed that the promos “represented the show extremely well and explained very well what it was about.”

He goes on to say that marketing is being unfairly blamed for the show’s poor performance. Maybe, but if four million people had watched the premiere then only two million returned for the next episode, you’d have a case against the show itself. But when less than a million tune in in the first place, then you really can’t blame the series, can you?

When it comes to marketing a TV show, a website or a product, the first thing you have to do is get people in the door. And clearly, this was a marketing campaign that failed on the first step.

Many marketers and small business owners see blogging, rightly, as an important aspect of their SEO efforts because of their ability to attract inbound links. And even beyond SEO, getting lots of links for your blog posts is key to establishing yourself as an expert and building traffic.

I’ve spent the past few months analyzing data on over 150,000 blog posts and I’ve identified several ways you can optimize your blogging efforts to drive more incoming links.

Day of Week

I found that blog post published in the early and mid business week tended to attract more links than articles published on other days. This is likely because the “linkerati” (people who control and create links, like bloggers) tend to spend the most time working on their sites during the week, as opposed to on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Time of Day

When I turned my analysis towards the hour of publishing, I found that blog posts published very early in the morning (like, 7AM early) attracted many more links than articles posted at other times during the day. This is because most linkerati are looking at their inboxes and feedreaders in the morning to find interesting content to write about and link to.

Most Linked-To Words

When I studied the words that occured in blog post and how they correlated with incoming links, I found words like “recent” and “soon” that indicated linkers were interested in writing about timely content. I also found many words like “insights,” “analysis,” and “review” that told me people were interested in linking to content that expressed a blogger’s personal and unique point-of-view.

Least Linked-To Words

When I looked at the other side of the coin, I found that complex and technical industry terms like “settlements,” “franchise,” “derivatives,” and “futures” often occurred in posts that got fewer links than the average. I also noticed that the word “episode” correlated with lower linking rates, possibly indicating that people aren’t excited about linking to one piece of content in an ongoing series of content.

Now it’s time to take off my bargain shopper hat and put on my marketing hat for the 5 Marketing Lessons We Can Learn from Black Friday. Here we go.

1. Tweet, text, post or pigeon: Communication collaboration is the key

This year, every major retailer included social media in their holiday marketing campaigns and many added mobile for the first time. Coupon codes were hawked on Twitter, sale parties were held on Facebook and checkin services helped thousands of consumers reap deals on everything from HDTV’s to a quick Black Friday lunch. Email alone doesn’t cut it anymore. If you’ve got a product or service to sell, you need to hit every channel with tailored messaging if you want to be in the black come year end.

2. A deal makes even unwanted items attractive.

I bought a Samsung bluetooth headset at Staples today, not because I needed one or even had a real desire for one but because after the rebates it cost me $4.99. For that price, I couldn’t resist. Funny thing about deals, they don’t even have to be the best deal around in order to gain attention. For example, Amazon had hundreds of DVDs marked way down for Black Friday. Seemed like great prices, but you could buy them cheaper from the third party sellers and even cheaper if you don’t mind used. Which leads me to point number two:

3. Urgency Sells

Black Friday sales work because they’re a ticking clock. Shop before noon! Limited quantities! Price valid only between 2 pm and 4 pm. Today only! There’s something about a time or quantity limit that makes you feel like it’s something you have to have.

4. I’m special

The only thing more attractive than a limited time deal, is a limited time deal that’s just for a select group of people. Extra discounts for using a store’s branded credit card, a bonus item because you’re on the mailing list or because you liked them on Facebook. 10% off if you’re over 55 years old or because I’m a loyal customer. Make me feel like I’m going to get a little bit more because I’m special and I’ll shop, shop, shop.

5. Do what you have to, then go one better

This is a busy and stressful time of year for everyone, so customers will really appreciate it if you do a little more than everyone else. Add an inexpensive bonus item to online purchases, offer a free cookie to go to shoppers grabbing lunch, send an email to your best customers with a list of hand-picked gift suggestions (none of this computer auto-matching stuff). And don’t forget service with a smile even if it’s just a “: )” at the end of your tweet.

Thanks to the immediacy of the Internet, there’s still plenty of time to sway customers to your product or service. Simply follow these five tips and you can turn Black Friday into a month long event.

While you might be optimizing your website for search and participating in social media, are you optimizing your social efforts for search? Looking at four of the main social networks; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, here are some tactics to implement for each profile. While maintaining an active presence on social networks is a good start, you might be over looking some of these common sense tips. If used properly, these tactics should help your profile rank well within social search results.

Facebook

• Include URL in static text box beneath Page photo.
• Include URL in Info tab, and if possible tag with a lead source to track that visitors are coming from your Facebook Page.
• Include your Twitter handle within the static text box as well; along with your blog URL or other related micro-sites.
• Utilize keywords in status updates when appropriate.

YouTube

• Try to overlay your URL in the video.
• Use annotations/captions.
• Carefully select keywords and tags for your videos.
• Try to incorporate a keyword into your video titles.
• Name your channel as closely to your official company name as possible.
• Include official company name and keyword in static description box.
• Include URL on Channel page and if possible tag with a lead source to track that visitors are coming from YouTube.

Twitter

• Try to match your Twitter handle with your official company name as closely as possible.
• Use your official company name in the Twitter name field.
• Include your full/official company name in your Twitter bio if it won’t fit into the name field.
• Include at least one focus keyword in your Twitter bio.

LinkedIn

• Include Website and Blog URL.
• Add services on Company Page.
• Ask for company recommendations.
• Use official name for company profile and any associated groups.

General branding tips

• Stay consistent with brand name and logo across profiles.
• Use brand colors and take some time to either design a background or use a proper color scheme.

By implementing these tips on your social profiles and staying consistent, you’ll make it easier for your supporters to find you online. These suggestions will also help you to appear in social search results on each platform. Finally, including keywords in the bio or description sections will make your profiles more likely to appear in searches for related topics in social directories like Twellow.com.

About Renée Revetta

Search Mojo’s senior social media specialist organizes social media efforts with the Search Mojo team and monitors daily social media activity. In addition to working on social media projects for clients, Renée manages the Search Mojo blog, Search Marketing Sage,
and the company’s overall social media presence.

Let’s start with Business News Daily. For some strange reason, they have two, very similar articles running today that deal with Twitter success. First, there’s 9 Steps to a Successful Twitter Strategy.

The title alone will stop many people in their tracks. Strategy? I just post whatever comes to mind when I have minute, right? Is that a strategy? No, Newman, it’s not. The article lists nine steps to setting up a plan but basically it breaks down to this, list your marketing goals, listen to your customers, create a plan to regularly engage and respond to your customers, set up metrics to measure your success in regard to the marketing goals.

Nothing there you didn’t know and yet I’d bet that 75% of people who Tweet for business don’t do any of that. Overwhelmed, maybe? That takes us to Splitting Up Your Social Strategy from WebPronews.com The suggestion here is that you look at the small metrics in order to decide how to proceed with your Tweeting. For example, how many people RT a story? Which stories get clickthroughs? Which were ignored? Remember to look at time of day. Do your am stories get more clickthroughs than the ones you post at night?  Then make that part of your strategy – schedule more tweets before noon and forget Tweeting after six.

Need some inspiration? That second article on Business News Daily talks about the Twitteratti,aka, the business Tweeters who are doing it right. They have their list but I’d like to add two of my personal favorites, @Syfy and @WarnerArchive.

Both of these active Twitterers do an excellent job of balancing community and fun with business. WarnerArchive’s ultimate goal is to get you to buy their DVDs (which are fabulous) and though they do post sales Tweets, I don’t feel like I’m being spammed. Most of their stream is devoted to trivia, contests and responding and RTing to the community members. I feel like WarnerArchive and I are friends and I look forward to their exchange.

@Syfy is actually Craig Engler, the VP of a large cable network but his Twitter account makes him very accessible. He takes the time to answer questions, he sends out fun trivia, he runs giveaways and he promotes the TV shows on Syfy. He has 53,000 followers and yet if feels like he’s talking to a small group.

To sum it up. Take a look at the businesses on your Twitter list, learn from the ones who have got it right and the ones that rub you the wrong way. When it comes to Twitter, there’s gold in them hills, you just have to figure out the best way to get at it.

Do you have a favorite business Tweeter?