One of the questions I get all the time is: “What should we blog/tweet/video/facebook about?”  My response: Don’t talk about shoes.

When starting any campaign, don’t think about what products you can promote.  Think about your target audiences.  That may be business-decision makers or developers or shoe shoppers.  Who geeks out about your product? And what are they geeking out about?

My number one example lately for effective use of social media to connect with your target audience has been Zappos.  For those not familiar with Zappos, they are an online shoe retailer.  A dime a dozen, you say? Not so with Zappos.  They know the number one thing about sales: It’s all about a personal connection with your buyer.

How Zappos Uses Blogging To Reach Buyers

Zappos has tweleve blogs.  One CEO and COO blog.  Ten Consumer Interest Blogs. Check it:

Looks like Zappos has broken their audience down into Parents, Health Enthusiasts, Fashion Divas, Runners, Outdoorsy Types and Extreme Sporters (Surfers, Skaters, Snowboarders, etc.).  Each audience has a team of content creators writing about topics that pique the interests of these folks.  This army of mini-lifestyle bloggers are writing about things like:

And yes, they do occasionally blog about shoes–but more like the history of shoes, choosing comfortable shoes–not product-focused posts like “We have XXX now in stock” or “70 % Off Running Shoes.”

So how can you apply this to routers, processors, endpoint security or enterprise solutions and still stay glamorous? You don’t.  To be sexy, you have to stay true to your customers.

How to Create Compelling Content That Appeals to Your Audience:

• Listen
  • See what your target audience is saying: Where they are hanging out? What are they talking about? How are they saying it?
  • Bonus points if you actually survey your customers and audiences
• Check out your resources.  You may need to do some hiring.
  • Is there anyone on staff that can blog about certain topics? Are there developers already blogging? Any that might be interested?  Maybe it would be effective to hire a couple of content creators.  Juggle the budgets–steal from advertising
• Get ready to rock
  • What’d you learn during the listening phase? Incorporate that.
  • What stories can you tell? What conversations can you have? GEEK IT UP!!
  • Run out of ideas? What do *you* love about the product?
• Write compelling content. Just Effing Do it!
• Get involved.
  • Yup, you have to get these content creators to comment on other blogs with similar topics.
  • Not sure where to go? Check out alltop.com for a directory of ALL the TOP blogs. (Zappos gets dinged for this one!)

Results:

• Increased connection with your customer base
• Increase awareness of your product
• You increase your SEO and help customers follow the *ahem* tracks back to you

So what’s stopping you? Ask yourself: How can we sell shoes without talking about shoes? Create compelling content and conversations to pique the curiosity of your key customers!

What do you do to better reach your target audiences? Let us know in the comments!

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

[The above photo, "I heart my red shoes even tho I never wear them" by lis rock on Flickr, used under Creative Commons] by  on flickr

Related posts:

1. “Breadcrumbs: Using Curiosity to Strategically Reach Audiences”
2. “And…Cut! How Not To Pitch Video Content”
3. “Getting Smart With Facebook, Part 1: Theory and Proof Points”

Today’s “always on” executive faces one heck of a conundrum: Between running from meeting to meeting, speaking at all the hottest tradeshows, and making million dollar decisions, where do they find the time to tweet, qik, write blog posts, superpoke competitors on Facebook, or read and reply to blog posts?

In many cases, the executive doesn’t have time and the onus falls on her admin or the Marketing, Comms or PR teams.  Instead of ghostwriting, however, we should become facilitators of conversation.  Before we get into our opinion and share tips, check out some of thoughts we received from you on Twitter.

We asked you: How much blogging and tweeting should admins do for their execs?

(Click to Enlarge. Note: Tweets are in Reverse Chronological Order)

The Results:

• A Strong Majority said: None! Social Media is about transparency. Execs should be in it to win it
• A few said: A small percentage of the time, but only status updates for small tasks–NOT full posts or “insight”
• Even smaller said: It’s ok if there is full disclosure.

In traditional PR, we often draft responses for our clients and then give it to them to add their personal touches.  Although a little part of me dies each time, we do write quotes in Press Releases for clients who may not have the time to draft them themselves.  But, as many of you noted, for me social media is about being transparent and authentic–somewhat raw and more “complete” than traditional methods of communications.  On the other hand, when I’m crazy busy, my social media creation declines so I can only imagine the difficulties execs face.  So what’s the compromise.

My favorite response came from Cathryn Hrudicka (@creativesage): “Depends on situation—I like execs to draft own posts. I edit or coach them toward final post—authentic voice for blog, etc.”

As advisers, we have to steer our clients towards best practices.  We coach them on what to Tweet about, when to Tweet, ideas or (very rough) outlines for blog posts, etc.  If an admin is manning the Twittersphere, transparency is a must.  CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s Twitter profile does it best by disclosing: “written by Anderson Cooper and the show’s correspondents and producers.” (I don’t follow “him” because he doesn’t follow back. Don’t get me started. But it’s a good example.)

What about being a part of community? Or authenticity? That’s where our role as facilitators of conversation comes in.

Tips on How to become facilitators of conversation and not just ghostwriters for execs:

• Monitor key blogs/forums. Send execs 3-5 relevant posts a week (think briefing sheets!). When you send these posts over, send 2-3 posts on which they can comment
• Coach them on comments, particularly focusing on the how–formatting, tone, disclosure.  If you need to, draft a rough outline or template but let them add the meat and personalize it
• Shove a camera in their face and ask them one question.  Great way to do a fast video blog post or a video comment on blogs that have that capability
• Brainstorm a list of ideas for blog posts.  Do this monthly and create an Editorial Calendar so they don’t forget!
• Monitor Twitter and FriendFeed for Tweets or FF Posts that need responses. Again, coach them on best responses

What do you think about ghostwriting? Should it be done? If so, when and how much?  Also, what are some ways you help your client without doing it all? Let us know in the comments!

Extra big thanks to everyone who participated in the Twitter Poll today.  If you liked what they had to say, follow them: @airiq_p @smileysapana @jkingsbury @gbender26 @bchesnutt @hkremer @Adrigonzo @alliecefalo @marketingMisfit @CreativeSage @Emmy214 @vargasl @HannahESmith @ischafer @MargaretClark @socialmedium @meghanbeattie @naomimimi @lizscherer

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox!

[The above image, keyboard ~ blur by striatic on Flickr, used under Creative Commons]

Related posts:

1. “Just Effing Do It: 8 Steps To Writing Better Blog Posts”
2. “Amazon PR Tries to Dam the River of News; Flood Ensues”