The Wax Blog

Part of the problem with social media campaigns is that typically people start out with lots of zeal and run out of gas really fast.  Wise magazine editors and television producers will tell you it’s really hard to come up with fresh new content on a monthly or weekly basis. Try coming up with it daily for your social media! In this post in a series on building an actionable social media plan we’ll show you how to create guidelines for social media that turns your daily head-scratching for ideas into an easy process.

As you know, your blog is both the landing pad and the launch pad for your social media campaign. Your blog topics will help drive the rest of your posting activity on other networks and help create your own personal brand. So it’s important to brainstorm a list of topics…and more importantly categories of topics…that you want to write about. First you should read Beth’s post on picking topics for your blog.  Now read on to figure out how to plan your topics efficiently and with a minimum of time. (more…)

I was emailing with a virtual colleague of mine about a young media consultant who is known for having thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers. In fact, that’s her primary presence online. We were wondering whether this person’s Twitter stardom would turn into lucrative consulting deals. After all, how much of you intellectual capital can you display in 140 characters? (Those of you who follow me on Twitter during American Idol season might think it actually does the opposite.)

It’s a question that demonstrates how great success in one social media network may not translate to more business for you. And that’s why it’s so important to find the right social media tools to work your campaign, not necessarily the most popular ones.  (If you’d like to know how I feel about many company Facebook pages, you can read my post on that subject here.)

So for the fourth post in this series on writing an actionable social media plan,  instead of thinking about “should we do twitter and facebook” ask yourself, where are my customers engaged in social media? If you’re B2B, it’s probably not on Facebook. If you’re launching a book, what better place to be than Facebook, where you can set up a fan page and tell all your friends about it? Think about your customers, or readers, or whomever you are trying to reach. What are they using right now? Restaurants, bars and other social types of places better get have a presence on  geo-based social media like Yelp and Foursquare. Consultants, I’d suggest having an informative blog that really demonstrates your knowledge of your industry. Whatever you choose, don’t try to be everywhere. Pick a couple of networks that you think you can easily manage and go from there. Just as a quick primer, here is the social media that seems to work well for my clients in different industries: (more…)

As promised in the wonderful Dana Larson’s post on time management, I’m going to fill you in on the rough process I use to manage my own (and Wax Marketing’s) social media accounts. Because I work on social media campaigns for some of my clients, people tend to think it’s really easy stay engaged in my own social media accounts. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Like most people, I either get totally sucked into goofing off on Twitter ( lately it’s @pharm84 who is a bad influence ) or I get so busy on client work I ignore it. But for the most part I have a routine I follow, and tools I use, that seem to work well for me in terms of staying consistent.  I hope it gives you some ideas, and PLEASE – let’s get some good comments going on favorite tools and tips for making social media less overwhelming. (more…)

We might be operating in a new technological paradigm, but the basics still apply when you’re trying to find time to make use of social media. In this post, Dana Larson provides a refresher on some easy ways to make time for online marketing. On Monday, I will share with you the specific tools I use to automate as much of my own social media platform (and my clients) as I can. But first, here’s Dana…

We want to be able to “do it all”, but let’s face it – we don’t have time. You probably don’t even have time to read this blog post, right?  Staying up to date on all the new advances in online marketing is a full-time job in itself. Below I’m listing my top 5 ways to manage my workload. (more…)

Bart the Dumpster Dog

I realized right away that @bartthedog was gaining followers at a much faster rate than @waxgirl333 , my twitter handle. Not to mention the fact that he has more than ten times the number of Facebook fans for his Bart the Dumpster Dog fan page. Neither of us are megastars in the social media stratosphere (yet!) but I thought taking a look at how @bartthedog pays attention to his social media might give you an idea of how he’s added more than 3000 followers in such a short time – with very little effort.

1. Bart has a GREAT back story. Not everyone can say they were rescued starving and frozen from a dumpster on an Indian reservation.

2. Bart has a unique and consistent voice. This is probably because I have anthropomorphized Bart and his brother for the past three years to such an extent that I’m fairly fluent in Dog.  His followers call him “cutey” and “sweetie” and “lovey” so I guess it doesn’t matter that he’s over 90 pounds – his voice is crystal clear to them.

3. The dog lover niche, particularly for rescued dogs, is really strong, if not zealous. I told a car dealer once that if he supported his local humane society in a big way he’d have more customers than he could handle and I was right. One woman drove from South Dakota to Minnesota to buy a car from the guy – for helping rescued animals.

4. Bart’s not selling anything. He’s just a friendly guy that sends out tweets about interesting dogs for adoption on petfinder, cool doggy news and stuff he’s been doing lately.  He’s also very good at RT’ing information for animal rescue groups, so there’s a certain altruistic side to the boy.

5. Finally, Bart is always positive and never controversial. He doesn’t take sides and has no politics.

I started Bart’s accounts as a way to test some of the programs and apps for Twitter and Facebook, not to grow his profile.  Before long he’ll be writing a book and signing pawtographs.

I talk a lot about the need for the right “mix” when you promote your product, business, book, whatever it is – engaging in social media is no different. To get a good result you have to find the recipe that’s 100% ALL YOURS. But just like the hard-to-bake souffle, there are some ingredients I’ve seen in of the work of ALL successful social media contributors.   Here are the components I believe you should always use for your  social media recipe…and some of experts who cook it up just right. Feel free to add your favorite folks – let’s get a good list going! (more…)