]This is How You Create a Community in Social Media through a Social Media Campaign

Welcome to maximize your social, actionable 10 minute advice on how your business can maximize your social media presence. Now, the host of maximize your social, social media author, speaker, consultant, founder of maximize social business, and soon to launch Social Media Center of Excellence, Neal Schaffer. Hey, this is Neal Schaffer and welcome to a another episode of maximize your social This is the week of Thanksgiving, maybe? Well, hopefully you're not listening to those podcasts on Thanksgiving Day, unless you live outside of the United States, but you don't have the holiday. But I hope you're all having a great holiday season. I am obviously in my home office getting ready for the holidays, myself got the family in town. And well, it's a special time of year. So today, I want to talk a little bit about social media campaigns. It's funny, I think I remember reading it, maybe it was on the Hootsuite blog that, you know, these are the things you should look for when hiring a social media consultant. And one of the things they said was, you know, have them describe to you the best campaigns of 2014. You know, it's funny whenever someone asked me and I often get asked, you know, blog interviews, Hey, what are the what are the most memorable campaigns of 2014, I suppose if you worked at an agency, and all you did was campaigns on behalf of a fortune 500 brands, you'd probably be a study or of every single brand that's out there, I obviously do not do that for a living. I am not an agency. And I do as much b2b as I do business to consumer business. So for me, whenever someone asked me about a social media campaign, I think to myself, what has bubbled up to the surface, a campaign can be as great as you want it to be, there's some campaigns we'll never know about, because they're targeting a completely different audience, that you know, that information just may not bubble up to you. But when I start seeing things in my Facebook newsfeed, when I start seeing tweets, when I start seeing a hashtag, when I start seeing something that has me pay attention to it, and part of it could be, it could be on TV, I watch TV, I listen to the radio, you know, it could be from a number of different factors. But those are the campaigns that for me, as an average consumer, I guess I'm a specific demographic, but those are the ones that are going to be memorable to me. And unless they bubble up to the surface, I'm not going to know about them. And, you know, for me, like I said, Whenever I want to try to investigate what's working and what's not for social media campaigns that are out there, it's very, very easy to find that information. I tend to, you know, go to social media go to Google when I have a need to. But today I want to talk about well, you know, what are the best practices what, what's an example of a campaign, Neal that bubbled up to the surface that really works in an authentic and transparent way that businesses can help utilize. And yesterday I had that aha moment. And you know, it doesn't happen very often. Like I said, even though I get bombarded with social media messaging every day, I suppose those campaigns out there, you know, on a 24/7 basis, once you start looking for them in social, but yesterday, it was actually in a Facebook group. And if you've been listening to my podcast, for the last few weeks, you should know about my own Facebook group, Social Media Center of Excellence, as well as the fact that I've been joining some other groups, I found some really, really good professional groups, professional groups that are on par, if not better than LinkedIn groups, because they're better moderated. And in all honesty, there's less spam. And a lot of times your friends are in that right. And the beauty about Facebook groups is you receive that notification when one of your friends it's in the same group posts in that group. There's a certain viral aspect to it. But yesterday, it was in a group, where I saw an introduction to something called the Passion Planner. Now, this is going to go into my other pet peeve. This is specifically a social media campaign for a Kickstarter project. In all honesty, I am not a big fan of Kickstarter projects. I think that if you don't have a few $100, or a few $1,000, you should be borrowing from your friends, your parents, go to a bank, what have you. So I find Kickstarter is less of these people really need money to pursue a dream, although I'm sure that's part of it. And more of its promotional, it's a great way to get the word out. It's an excuse. It is a type of social media campaign, and excuse to get the word out about your company. And there are people that love Kickstarters that are early adopters that are angel investors, venture capitalists, so you have an audience that is ready for them. But you know, believe me when I get you know, emails or Facebook messages, hey, can you help support my Kickstarter? It's like, that's, that's just self promotion. And if you're a friend Sure, I want to help you if you're not and I'm really not interested in the product. I see no reason to write because I know that, you know, you're probably using it in a promotional way. And I think that a lot people now think this way two years ago, it was pretty cool. It was really new. But now it's not. So, you know, when I see stuff or kickstart is this like, Okay, next, I usually don't have any interest. But this one really caught my attention. And the reason it caught my attention was person shared it in the Facebook group, and shared it with a, you know, it was a message, it was a type of product that really, for lack of a better word, he was able to associate with it. And he was able to describe it in a sentence that made it look interesting to me. Now, when he linked to the Kickstarter page, there was also a very, very nice video. And anybody who's ever done a Kickstarter knows that the video is all important. I think it's not just Kickstarter, for a lot of different social media campaigns, being able to introduce something via video, whether you're trying to attract influencers, brand ambassadors, or the campaign has already started and you're just trying to bring people to a landing page, the video often is a key element. So one of the things I liked about the Passion Planner, if you're not familiar with it, because I wasn't familiar with it, I guess a year ago, the Passion Planner, which is a different way of organizing your thoughts in a daily planner actually got a huge Kickstarter campaign, a successful campaign raised a lot of money. And they created an eight and a half by 11, Passion Planner, daily planner, which a lot of people say, you know, helps increase their productivity helps them pursue their dreams, what have you, you have to do a search and go to passion planner.com To find out more about it. But the beautiful thing about this campaign is the video is of the person who founded the company, a UCLA, well, former UCLA student, she's still in her early 20s. And she introduces the product in her own voice showing herself in the video. So you immediately I have this, this this bond, because it is a person in a video, not a voiceover, and not someone that is not a person. So you know, what that brings us to is that people are the best sellers, people associate the best with people. And it's the people centric part of this, which really draws people especially if you are trying to attract consumers, I guess it will work for b2b as well. But so it's the person and it's their story. And they go through why they created this product, how it helped them how they think it can help you. So immediately, you have a a bond with the creator of the product that is set in the video that once you get to that landing page, you want to see the video, you're drawn into it. But you know, how do we get more people to the landing page to get drawn into the video and then the product and the Kickstarter pages is full of detailed photos or what have you. Now, I should go on that the Kickstarter campaign is for I guess last year was when they launched the product and it was successful. The Kickstarter campaign this year is for a mini version. So the mini version is a you know, iPad Mini type size of the same passion planner. So right now, and I believe we have until the end of the year. Oh no, it's only a week ago. So if you hear this by December 1, you'll be able to see it go to Kickstarter, do a search for Passion Planner, you'll see that it already has nearly 20,000 backers raised more than $500,000 Even though it only needed $10,000. But the beautiful thing about this is once you go to order the product in fact, you know what, I think it's even on the Kickstarter page. In fact, it is on the Kickstarter page. You'll notice that if you go down the page, it says share us and get the full PDF for free. Okay, let's read what the Texas Your Passion Planner has evolved into the tool that I wish someone shared with me when I was feeling lost this year has helped 1000s of people around the world reach their goals. I have so much belief that passion planner can be a catalyst to change someone's life that I feel that anyone should be able to use it regardless of their financial ability. That's why I've decided to share it for free. If you want to share this Kickstarter on any social media with the hashtag Passion Planner hashtag. And to shoot us an email with a screenshot of a link of where you shared it, we will send you the full PDF of Passion Planner 2015 When the Kickstarter ends completely for free for you to download, print and use to pursue your dreams. You know, so many companies just want to get you to the Kickstarter page or to a campaign page where they want to sell you. Well, the founder of Passion Planner, and Jelenia Trinidad is one smart cookie or has really, really good guidance that you know, you don't even have to invest in a Kickstarter. But if you believe that it's a good product, even if you don't have any money, just share it on social media. You know, you can download a free PDF and print it out yourself. It's an amazing thing that when people do these campaigns, and they may have a certain giveaway but sometimes it's a sweepstakes only one out of a million are going to win. But with every person that comes to the campaign, make it shareable. Give them an excuse to one gonna share it and it's so authentic. Hey, share the you know, share this and you'll get an extra five points in the campaign. No, we believe that anybody should get access to it. If you believe in the product, even if you don't want to invest, just have a share, we'll give you something. I think that is a great tactic. In fact, when I went to passion planner.com, and yes, I actually did order. So it got me to buy, which is pretty rare on social media, actually, it got me to buy their original eight and a half by 11, which they put out last year. And believe it or not, that they're already out of stock, I have to wait till January to get it but I still ordered it even knowing that. So you know, there's other things if you go to the passion planner.com site, it says what is it by and then use Passion Planner for free. So you know, you can print out a week for free. Interestingly enough, the the free PDF downloads, a weekly download is available on the site as well even not in the Kickstarter. And it's funny because I guess a lot of people are downloading it and then wanting to send Angelina money. And she says no, if it's helped you, I will donate 100% of your contributions to a different charity each month. So if you want to donate, you don't want to buy the product, but you're thankful for the free downloads, please donate here. And as she says in the tax good perpetuating more good sounds like a win win win situation. Once again, there is a strong human element here that ties into our emotions. With social good, we all want to feel good about it. But if you thought that was enough, no, there's more here. What is it by use it for free. And then another menu item is get one free, refer three get yours free. And as she says we believe that our community is our biggest asset that we feel compelled to thank the people who share us with the world. Step one, tell your friends or followers about passion planner at the way post, tweet, blog email, post it note Message in a Bottle doesn't matter what the vehicle is. Step two, receive one referral credit when someone makes a purchase and list you as their reference during checkout, make sure they give us your email address. Number three, once you get three referrals, you're gonna get a free planner, I am not doing this for any financial gain. By the way, I'm just sort of reading through the technical side. But I want you to see a social media campaign. And rarely a Kickstarter campaign that creates a tie a human tie and emotional bond with the person who created the product through the video that authentically allows you to get something free, even if you don't want to invest in the project, because you might be interested in the product allows you to do that by authentically sharing on any you know, any social media channel that you want. And then if you really wanted to buy the actual product on possible planner.com. Once again, the social good component on the free page if you want to donate donate here, and then hey, it's really easy on your free planner. In fact, when I bought my planner, it definitely said on the order form who referred you? And that's the area where you can put your email address and no, I'm not gonna give you my email address because like I said, I'm not out here for financial gain. But that is a sign and just, you know, when you can say in your text that, you know, we really want to support our community, we're building a community, how many campaigns or websites? Do you see that that even mentioned the word community. And when you mentioned the word community, obviously, you better have a community otherwise, I don't think it's going to resonate with people. But assuming that you have a community. And I believe that this does from the amount of people that obviously were donating on the Kickstarter campaign, it once again, it's a very, very strong, bold move to say it. But I believe that this product does have it through all of the things that they're doing. And I think that once you have that strong community, that it's going to help propel future success, as in creating new products, new Kickstarter campaigns for promotion, whatever this brand decides to do. And I'm really going to be on the lookout for what happens to passion planner.com. As time goes by, hey, once I get mine in January next year, I'll report back to you on this podcast about how it went. So that's sort of my review of a sort of my view on social media campaigns and how I think that a lot of them fail. But this is a rare Kickstarter campaign that I think really works, it's going to help drive more traffic back to the Kickstarter, create that viral component of having people sharing social media, even if you go to their website, there's this notion of hey, share with your friends, social good. If you want to donate, you know, I'm going to donate to a different charity. And this whole community aspect that we are here because of our community, we want to support our community that really permeates itself throughout everything that they say on their website. And that's just a brilliant example that I think is is really, really hard for a lot of companies to emulate. I think it's easy. If you're a startup, obviously you don't have that brand legacy. You don't have a lot of history to deal with. So obviously with no previous brand recognition, you can go out and do that. But you know, even if you're an established brand, if you want to try to create a new product with different branding, you can have the same mentality as a startup doing All right. Hey, that's it for another episode of maximize your social with Neal Schaffer. Hope you enjoyed the advice. Well, it's Thanksgiving. So I think we all have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, my health, my happiness, my friends and social media, my customers and social media. And I hope that whatever you're thankful for, you're giving thanks to those people as well. Like I'm giving thanks to you on this podcast. Thank you so much, everyone, for your support so far, on this journey, we're almost Well, we're over a year right but almost at the end of 2014 tend to reflect and, you know, do better next year be happier next year. Thanks more people next year. Make more relationships next year. I'm gonna cut out until we talk again, make it a great social Day, everybody, wherever you are in the world. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to maximize your social. We appreciate your iTunes subscriptions, ratings and comments. If you would like to appear on this show, or recommend content, please contact Neal Schaffer at Neal at maximize your social.com Please also make sure to check out Neil's new community, the Social Media Center of Excellence at social media ce o e.com. Thanks again and make it a social day.